Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak thought it was 'okay' to let people die from coronavirus during the pandemic, the official Covid-19 inquiry has heard.

The then prime minister Mr Johnson wanted to let the virus “rip” instead of tightening lockdown measures, the inquiry heard on Monday (November 20).

In further revelations from Sir Patrick Vallance’s pandemic diaries, the inquiry heard of the “shambolic” day on October 25 2020, when the country was heading towards a second national lockdown. Sir Patrick, who was the government's chief scientific adviser during the pandemic, said Mr Johnson wanted to let the virus spread and didn't mind that people would die.

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The scientist also wrote in his diaries that Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson's most senior adviser, suggested that Mr Sunak, who was the chancellor at the time, also thought that letting people die was “okay”.

In an extract shown to the inquiry Sir Patrick wrote in his diary: “PM meeting – begins to argue for letting it all rip. Saying yes there will be more casualties but so be it – ‘they have had a good innings’. Not persuaded by (Jon) Edmunds, (Neil) Ferguson, (Jeremy) Farrar. PM says ‘the population just has to behave doesn’t it’."

Sir Patrick noted that the then PM was "getting very frustrated" and "throwing papers down" during the meeting. He wrote that the Mr Johnson argued "most people who die have reached their time anyway".

The scientist said Mr Cummings put forward the argument that "we need to save lives" and that it was "not democratically possible to follow another route". He added: "DC argued again (rightly) that a lockdown’s coming and therefore do it sooner rather than later."

The extract from Sir Patrick's diary went on to say that Mr Johnson's conclusion was that "we are in a really tough spot, a complete shambles" and that the then PM's stance was "I really don’t want to do another national lockdown".

He wrote: “PM told that if he wants to go down this route of letting go, ‘you need to tell people – you need to tell them you are going to allow people to die’… Conclusion – beef up the tiers – consider a national lockdown – decide by when."

Sir Patrick also wrote that Mr Cummings had said: "Rishi thinks just let people die and that’s okay". He wrote: “This all feels like a complete lack of leadership".

Asked about the diary entry during Monday's evidence, Sir Patrick told the inquiry he was recording what must have been “quite a shambolic day”. However, the following day’s diary entry shows Mr Johnson had taken a different view and described the Covid death toll as “terrible”.

The inquiry also heard that Sir Patrick wrote that “we have a weak indecisive PM” and described the right-wing press as “culpable” in decision-making on Covid measures.

Asked about the diary entries, Downing Street declined to say whether Mr Sunak thought it would be okay to “just let people die” during the pandemic, saying it would be for the Prime Minister to set out his position during evidence before the Covid Inquiry. “The Prime Minister is due to give evidence before the inquiry at the time of their choosing. That’s when he’ll set out his position,” Mr Sunak’s official spokesman said.

The spokesman said a number of people will be setting out their views of the period, but “rather than respond to each one in piecemeal, it’s right that it is looked at alongside other evidence”.

Earlier on Monday, the inquiry heard Mr Johnson was "bamboozled" by the graphs and data presented to him by scientists during the pandemic. Sir Patrick's diary entries suggested that Mr Johnson sometimes struggled to retain scientific information and at one point queried whether Covid was spreading “because of the great libertarian nation we are”.

One entry from May 4 2020 read: "Late afternoon meeting with the PM on schools. My God, this is complicated. Models will not provide the answer. PM is clearly bamboozled. Other entries from May 2020 stated: "PM asking whether we've overdone it on the lethality of this disease. He swings between optimism, pessimism, and then this." and "PM still confused on different types of test. He holds it in his head for a session and then it goes."

In June, Sir Patrick wrote: "Watching the PM get his head round stats is awful. He finds relative and absolute risk almost impossible to understand."

An entry from September 2020 said: "Clare Gardiner talked PM through the graphs. It is difficult, he asks questions like which line is the dark red line is he colourblind? Then 'so you think positivity has gone up overnight?' then 'oh god bloody hell'. But it is all the same stuff he was shown six hours ago."