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The ex-chancellor said the Government should not have bowed so heavily to the Sage scientists who persuaded Boris Johnson to impose lockdowns. Mr Sunak told the Spectator, “if you empower these independent people, you’re screwed”.

He claimed No 10 ignored his concerns about the havoc the measures would wreak on the economy, schools and NHS.

He said if trade-offs had been acknowledged from when the first lockdown was imposed, different decisions could have been taken.

But Prof John Edmunds, an outspoken member of Sage, said: “It’s an old adage that advisers advise and ministers decide. This is how it should be, how it has always been and how it was during Covid.”

And Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s ex-adviser, called Mr Sunak’s claims “dangerous rubbish” that unfairly blamed the PM and others.

A No 10 spokesman said: “At every point, ministers made collective decisions which considered a wide range of expert advice available in order to protect public health.”

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