QUENTIN LETTS: The judge was busy writing something as Rishi Sunak spoke at the Covid Inquiry. Her Christmas cards? Perish the thought

One of those Covid Inquiry obsessives was loitering nearby when Rishi Sunak arrived in West London. ‘Lives are more important than money!’ screamed this protester, her voice twisted out of shape by anger.

Mr Sunak did not respond. But in the course of the next few hours, in a chess match-style examination from Hugo Keith KC, the PM calmly argued that both lives and livelihoods were his priorities throughout the Covid crisis.

Mr Keith, unofficial shop steward for the amalgamated union of pro-lockdown boffins and big-state fingerwaggers, again seemed to lean toward restrictions on the public. 

Lockdown this, lockdown that: it was all put in that husky voice and the disarmingly polite manner, with slight hint of Terry-Thomas front teeth.

An innocent might conclude that handsome Hugo was one of life’s charmers. Think about it long enough, mind you, and you’ll see that the theory he is pushing at this lawyers’ bunfight is scandalous. For the one L word we have not heard at the inquiry has been Liberty.

One of those Covid Inquiry obsessives was loitering nearby when Rishi Sunak (pictured giving evidence at the inquiry) arrived in West London. ‘Lives are more important than money!’ screamed this protester, her voice twisted out of shape by anger

Mr Sunak did not respond. But in the course of the next few hours, in a chess match-style examination from Hugo Keith KC, the PM calmly argued that both lives and livelihoods were his priorities throughout the Covid crisis

British identity, indeed British law, was once wedded to the concept of individual freedom. Even medieval kings had to accept that. 

Yet the 21st-century London elite now treats it merely as a negotiable extra, something to be cancelled on, say, the post-dated diary entries of a chief scientific adviser or the WhatsApp messages of a deranged Downing Street aide. 

READ MORE: Rishi Sunak defends Eat Out To Help Out telling Covid Inquiry it protected ‘millions of jobs’ held by vulnerable Brits that could otherwise have been ‘devastated’ – and admits he did NOT run it past Whitty and Vallance 

If Sage recommended the suspension of habeas corpus, would Mr Keith posit it as a reasonable policy proposal, worthy of circulation to all the relevant Whitehall departments? I wish I could be certain he would not.

With nothing much else in his diary – only the possible collapse of his Government and party – Rishi had to endure a whole day at this tooth-grindingly slow durbar of despotism. He had brought along a couple of writing implements and a rubber, which he placed neatly to one side. 

He wore a crisp new white shirt with a small collar. His hair was fresh lacquered and raked. He had done his prep. Whereas normally it has been Mr Keith who has called for slides to be shown of certain pages of evidence, this time the witness also did it, asking for specific pages of his submissions to be highlighted.

A good sub-editor could have got Mr Keith’s questioning down to an hour. But sub-editors, unlike lawyers, are paid to work to tight deadlines. 

Lawyers make more from spinning things out. If you are on up to £220 an hour and you can keep it going for years, you could be looking at early retirement to a finca on the Med’. If Mr Keith, 56, ever buys a yacht, perhaps he’ll call her the Lady Hallett, with brass railings and a gin deck.

Mr Keith urged the PM to give shorter answers and then immediately went into a question which had more clattering sub-clauses than a Canadian freight train. Up at her throne, the judge was busy writing something. Doing her Christmas cards? Perish the thought.

With nothing much else in his diary – only the possible collapse of his Government and party – Rishi had to endure a whole day at this tooth-grindingly slow durbar of despotism. He had brought along a couple of writing implements and a rubber, which he placed neatly to one side

The main juice, such as it was, concerned Eat Out to Help Out, the Treasury scheme that enemies of the current PM now say was a killer. Mr Sunak argued that the scientists had had a month to object to it if they had so wished. 

Mr Keith backed away from the matter. Perhaps he, too, is noticing that Sir Patrick Vallance’s backside-covering version of events is crumbling.

Rishi was accorded more courtesy than other members of Boris Johnson’s regime. Was this because, like Comrade Keith, he is a Wykehamist (ie, an old boy of Winchester College)? 

Establishment types consider him a more hygienic and house-trained fellow than some of the other Brexiteers. Judge Hallett beamed down with rouge-cheeked approval. 

Mr Keith did not quite invite him to join in a chorus of their old school song, the Domum, but there was none of that ‘dog’s mess on my shoe’ attitude we had when he was interrogating Dominic Cummings.

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