LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Thursday the government was confident in its position, as a 1500 GMT deadline to hand over internal communication documents to a public inquiry on the COVID-19 pandemic approached.
“We’ve been long cooperating with the inquiry, important that we learn the lessons of COVID so that we’re well prepared in the future,” Sunak told reporters on the sidelines of a summit in Moldova.
“Government is considering very carefully next steps, but it’s confident in its position,” he said.
Sunak’s Cabinet Office, which is responsible for overseeing the operation of government, has so far resisted handing over some of the messages and records requested by the inquiry, saying they amounted to “unambiguously irrelevant information” beyond the inquiry’s scope.
Former prime minister Boris Johnson’s government ordered the inquiry in 2021 to look into the preparedness of the country as well as the public health and economic response after Britain recorded one of the world’s highest total number of deaths from COVID-19.
With a national election expected next year, the close examination of decision-making has the potential to create political headaches for Sunak, who was finance minister during the pandemic.
(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; editing by William James)
