Eat Out to Help Out protected workers from ‘devastating’ job losses – Sunak

The Eat Out to Help Out discount hospitality scheme helped protect workers from the “devastating consequences” of job losses, Rishi Sunak has told the Covid inquiry.

The scheme was introduced by the Prime Minister, when he was chancellor during the pandemic, in summer 2020, in a bid to support the hard-hit hospitality sector as the UK emerged from coronavirus restrictions imposed during the first lockdown.

The policy has been heavily scrutinised by the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, with questions about whether scientists were consulted about the plan and whether it contributed to the spread of infection.

Giving evidence to the inquiry