Watch live: Rishi Sunak gives evidence to Covid-19 inquiry

Watch live as Rishi Sunak gives evidence at the Covid-19 inquiry on Monday, 15 December, as the probe investigates the government’s response to the pandemic.

The former prime minister was chancellor at the height of the pandemic. He presided over the discounted dining Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which scientists said was "highly likely" to have increased Covid infections and deaths.

Mr Sunak has previously defended the scheme, describing it as a “micro-policy” within the government’s overall plans to reopen after lockdown.

In previous evidence to the inquiry, Sir Patrick Vallance, the government's chief scientific adviser, said it had "completely reversed" the government's messaging that mixing was high-risk.

It comes after a damning report into pandemic decision-making found that chaos at the heart of Boris Johnson’s government and his failure to take Covid seriously led to 23,000 deaths.

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry also found the then prime minister and his chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, presided over a “toxic and chaotic culture” at the heart of No 10, which saw the views of women ignored.

The report found that more than 20,000 lives could have been saved in England if the lockdown had been implemented just a week earlier, in March 2020.