The Conservative leadership candidate believes one of the biggest mistakes was allowing the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) to have so much influence in decision-making, such as the closure of nurseries, schools and colleges in March 2020. Sunak also revealed he was banned from discussing the “trade-offs” of the coronavirus-related restrictions, such as missed doctor’s appointments and NHS waiting list backlogs. In an interview with the Spectator to be published on Saturday, the former chancellor said: “We should not have empowered scientists in the way we did. And you have to recognize the trade-offs from the start. “If we had done all that, we could be in a very different place. We probably would have made different decisions about things like schools.” Schools in the UK were closed except for those looking after the children of essential workers and vulnerable children. Some schools began to reopen in August 2020. Sunak’s comments came days after he praised British scientists and pledged to create a multibillion-pound research program if he became prime minister after British scientists were banned from EU funding. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Sunak said that during a meeting he tried to express his opposition to closing schools, saying he was “very emotional about it.” The former chancellor added: “I was saying, ‘Forget the economy – surely we can all agree that children not going to school is a big nightmare.’ “There was a long silence afterwards. It was the first time anyone had said that. I was so furious.” He said the minutes from the Sage meetings were redacted, resulting in dissenting views being omitted from the final draft. Sunak added: “Those meetings were literally me around that table, just fighting. It was incredibly uncomfortable every time.” Sunak said Sage’s advisers didn’t know for “a long time that there was a Treasury person on all their calls.” He revealed that the Treasury official briefed him on what was said during the meetings and what was left out by telling him “actually, it turns out a lot of people disagreed with that conclusion” or “here are the reasons why they weren’t sure about this “.