The peer said that, when the pandemic is viewed in hindsight, the UK has “come out relatively positively” but that lockdowns will be revealed to be an error.
“I think, honestly, people are going to look back at the last couple of years globally and see lockdown as a pretty serious public policy mistake,” he said.
“I would like to see the Government ruling out lockdowns for the future; repealing the legislation; ending them. We can’t afford it [and] it doesn’t work. Stop doing Covid theatre – vaccine passports, masks, stuff that doesn’t work – and focus on stuff that does work so that we’re ready if the next one is worse.
“Stuff like ventilation, antivirals, proper hospital capacity, managing it properly – that’s what we need to be focusing on going forward.”
Lord Frost’s words will chime with many on the Conservative backbenches, who have long argued that ministers have not considered a broad enough range of expert advice on key issues such as masks and vaccines.
Following his resignation, he was labelled a “hero” in a WhatsApp group of MPs who are sceptical about the value of lockdowns.
“I don’t think it’s about individuals particularly. I think it’s about the way the machinery works [in Downing Street],” he said.
“I’ve seen a fair bit of the material and I do think that there hasn’t been enough internal debate. There haven’t been enough voices challenging the epidemiologists. There hasn’t been enough of a voice of the economy in this, [or] an attempt to get to grips with the trade-offs.
“I have seen the Prime Minister kind of groping for that information and it not being there, and I think he’s not necessarily being well-served by everybody around him.”
