Thursday 1 September 2022 10:07 AM Boris's ex-spinner Lee Cain hits back at Rishi Sunak over lockdown claims trends now

Thursday 1 September 2022 10:07 AM Boris's ex-spinner Lee Cain hits back at Rishi Sunak over lockdown claims trends now
Thursday 1 September 2022 10:07 AM Boris's ex-spinner Lee Cain hits back at Rishi Sunak over lockdown claims trends now

Thursday 1 September 2022 10:07 AM Boris's ex-spinner Lee Cain hits back at Rishi Sunak over lockdown claims trends now

Former No10 spin doctor Lee Cain has hit back at Rishi Sunak's claims the trade-offs of the Covid lockdown were never discussed

Former No10 spin doctor Lee Cain has hit back at Rishi Sunak's claims the trade-offs of the Covid lockdown were never discussed

Rishi Sunak has been accused of being a Covid revisionist in a scathing attack by Boris Johnson's ex-spin doctor Lee Cain. 

The ex-Chancellor and Tory leadership hopeful last week claimed it had been a mistake to 'empower' scientists in the pandemic and that he had been forbidden from discussing the 'trade-offs' of lockdown.

Mr Sunak's comments were condemned by both scientists and former No10 insiders like Mr Cain, a former head of communications who once dressed as a chicken to chase David Cameron around the country.

Even ex-aide turned harsh critic Dominic Cummings rose to the outgoing Mr Johnson's defence and accused Mr Sunak of peddling 'dangerous nonsense'.

Now Mr Cain has written a letter to The Spectator, to stop what he called 'Covid revisionism' by critics wanting to 'rewrite history'.

Contrary to what the self-proclaimed 'underdog' in the race to be Prime Minister has claimed, Mr Cain said ministers and scientists 'agonised' over lockdown, and that it wasn't an 'easy decision'. 

'None of this is true – it is Covid revisionism,' he said.

In fact, the former insider claims the biggest mistake the Government made was not locking down sooner. 

'As the pandemic fades into our collective memory – and critics try to rewrite history – it’s clear that the biggest mistake we made was not locking down but doing so too late,' he wrote. 

Ex-chancellor and Tory leadership hopeful Mr Sunak has been called a 'Covid revisionist' by Mr Cain following an explosive interview where the former minister claimed he had been forbidden from highlight the impact of lockdowns on the country

Ex-chancellor and Tory leadership hopeful Mr Sunak has been called a 'Covid revisionist' by Mr Cain following an explosive interview where the former minister claimed he had been forbidden from highlight the impact of lockdowns on the country  

UK's Covid alert is downgraded to level two as hospital pressure and infections continue to decline 

The Covid alert level in the UK has been downgraded as the latest wave continues to fizzle out.

The country's four chief medical officers have jointly recommended that the Covid alert level moves from level three to level two.

A level two alert means that 'Covid is in general circulation but direct healthcare pressures and transmission are declining or stable'.

The last time the alert level was at its highest level of four was in December, when the original Omicron variant was ripping through the country. 

It had also been at four the previous winter, pre-vaccines, when the Alpha strain pushed hospital rates to record levels.

The downgraded alert comes after weeks of falling infection and hospital admissions across the UK.

There had been a sharp rise in cases starting in June when the highly-infectious BA.5 subvariant took off, which sparked fears of a deadly resurgence of the virus.

But the sub-strain turned out to be equally as mild as its parent Omicron variant and a rise in hospital rates was short-lived.

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Mr Cain said he remembered the morning of March 14 2020, about a week before the nation went into lockdown, when Mr Johnson and his advisers were told current measures to control the spread of Covid were failing.

He said the Prime Minister was presented with three scenarios, first, do nothing, second, enforce social distancing, or third, a national lockdown.

Only the final option would prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed, Mr Cain said.

But he added that despite facing the prospect of the NHS collapsing within three weeks, Mr Johnson still waited over a week to enact lockdown with Government 'paralysed' by the potential trade-offs of

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