The Treasury and the Covid crisis

Do you remember being told to stay at home? Or becoming very familiar with the word “furlough”? How about all those assurances that the government was following the science? And were you persuaded when ministers urged you to Eat Out to Help Out?

The Treasury was at the heart of the government’s response to the pandemic, rapidly designing and rolling our policies designed to protect jobs, support people and help businesses through an extraordinary – and unprecedented – time. But it was also wary of sharing its analysis, wary of external advice, and reluctant to work openly with other government departments.

To mark the publication of a major new IfG report into the Treasury’s Covid response, Financial Times economics editor Chris Giles joins this special episode of Inside Briefing takes a deep dive into how the UK’s finance ministry performed during the pandemic – and asks what lessons need to be learned.