Rishi Sunak has criticised the government's response to Covid - suggesting independent scientific advisers were given too much authority.
Mr Sunak - chancellor in the pandemic - told the Spectator magazine there had not been enough discussion about the negative side-effects of lockdowns.
He said he had felt "emotional" when he argued to keep schools in England open.
Downing Street said the economy and education had been "central" considerations in decision-making.
In his interview, Mr Sunak also hit out at campaign posters showing Covid patients on ventilators, saying it was "wrong" to "scare people".
His comments come as the Conservative leadership contest enters its final days, with the results due on 5 September.
The winner of the contest - Mr Sunak or Foreign Secretary Liz Truss - will replace Boris Johnson as Conservative leader and as prime minister.
During the campaign, both candidates have sought to highlight areas where they disagreed with the government in which they served, with Ms Truss saying she was opposed to the rise to National Insurance.
As chancellor from February 2020 to July 2022, Mr Sunak played a key role in the government's response to coronavirus, including establishing the furlough scheme and the Eat Out to Help Out scheme.
Speaking to the Spectator, Mr Sunak insisted he did not want to blame individuals but said he believes a series of mistakes were made by ministers during the pandemic.
He said ministers were not given enough information to scrutinise analysis produced by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) - a group of independent experts advising the government.
"We shouldn't have empowered the scientists in the way we did," he is quoted as saying.
Mr Sunak says ministers should have talked more about what he described as the "trade-offs" of lockdowns, such as NHS backlogs and the impact on children's education.
'Big silence'
"The script was not to ever acknowledge them. The script was: oh there's no trade-off, because doing this for our health is good for the economy.
"Those meetings were literally me around that table, just fighting. It was incredibly uncomfortable every single time.
"I was like, 'forget about the economy - surely we can all agree that kids not being in school is a major nightmare.' There was a big silence afterwards. It was the first time someone had said it. I was so furious."
Source: BBC
Image source: Pixabay
