Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was “deeply sorry” for all those who lost loved ones during the pandemic while giving evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry yesterday.

Sunak was questioned about the decisions he took as chancellor during the pandemic, including his Eat Out for Help Out scheme.

In his opening remarks, he said: “I’ve thought a lot about this over the past couple of years, it’s important that we learn the lessons so that we can be better prepared in the future, and it’s in that spirit and with enormous respect for all those affected that I’m here today.”

When questioned about criticism of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership during Covid, Sunak said “it’s hard for me to comment on that other than to say that my interactions with Number 10 and the Cabinet Office during this period felt fine to me”.

When asked why he no longer had access to WhatsApp messages sent during the time of the pandemic, Sunak said he had changed his phone “multiple times” and was “not a prolific user” of the platform.

In his evidence last week former PM Johnson said he had lost 5,000 WhatsApp messages due to technical problems.

Commenting on the prime minister’s evidence, campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, tweeted: “Rishi Sunak, or as the chief medical officer called him, ‘Dr Death the Chancellor’ has a catalogue of failures to answer for, from the ‘Eat Out To Help Out the Virus’ policy to refusing financial support for care workers to stop the spread of Covid between care homes.”