EXC: The chair of the UK's vaccine task force showed “official sensitive” government documents to a $200-a-head event for elite US venture capitalists last week
Kate Bingham, a Boris Johnson appointee, showed guests a list of products which the government is set to invest in 1/
Bingham spent 1hr with the “networking event” for women in private equity held by a Massachusetts firm
Her PowerPoint included a sensitive internal breakdown of vaccines.
Blue: "We haven’t necessarily signed contracts with all of them so far. But they’re all in our sights.” 2/
Bingham combines the role with her job as managing director of SV Health Investors, a private equity firm
Like Dido Harding, she is married to a Conservative MP: Treasury Minister Jesse Norman.
She also went to school with Rachel Johson
3/
In her talk she said she expects all over-50s to have vaccine available by Easter
But she also showed docs predicting up to 40% may never take it
There's “concern” over whether vaccines will “actually work". There isn't “any data” on whether it works for those with flu 4/
As a result officials are mulling a major “three-visits” programme that will see vulnerable given on flu vaccine and two for COVID next year
She also disclosed that the government will “literally dispatch roving teams on motorbikes” to deliver the vaccine to the vulnerable 5/
There is an important “debate” to be had, she added, about whether or not to vaccinate children.
As it stands, it is "highly unlikely" we'll have legislation to make vaccines mandatory and, therefore, improbable there will be herd immunity
6/
Sir Alistair Graham, a former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said it was “seriously ill-advised” to give. “It must raise a question as to whether she is a suitable person to be chairing a task force like that,” he said. /7
@JonAshworth said: “‘There are serious questions here as to why this information was shared at an international online conference where attendees paid for access. We are in a public health crisis and this information that ministers should be shared with the public.” 8/
More in tomorrow's ST with the excellent @Direthoughts - follow one of the best investigative reporters around now
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In August three MPs and the Good Law Project, a non-profit organisation, launched legal action against the government over its allegedly “persistent and unlawful failure” to disclose details of Covid-19-related spending 2/5
The claimants argue that the state has breached a law that requires contracts to be published within 30 days.
They have also posed Qs about firms that have secured lucrative work, like PestFix, a family-run pest control firm which has received at least £32m to produce PPE 3/5
EXC w/@TomCalver2: Wealthy areas are avoiding lockdown despite having higher COVID-19 rate than poorer areas under measures
This is warning of public health director for one of Lancashire's biggest councils in leaked memo to govt
Risks "double whammy" of Covid & more inequality
Eg. Rishi Sunak and Robert Jenrick's seats are not currently subject to lockdown measures
However, they have higher coronavirus infection rates than areas that are
This is consequence of a lack of standardisation. There is no cases threshold beyond which measures are imposed
@SteveReedMP: "We're at a critical stage in our fight against this virus. It is crucial the public have maximum confidence in the decision-making process. That can only happen with far greater transparency from Whitehall and council leaders in the room when decisions are taken"
At Tory conference today, @rosskempsell chaired a superb @Policy_Exchange panel on the civil service — offering rare insight into govt plans for Whitehall
It confirmed "hard rain's gonna fall" thesis, yes, but possibly on ministers as well as mandarins
Some highlights here 1/
Lord Theodore Agnew, Cabinet Office minister + key figure behind Whitehall revolution, revealed "I'm pushing very very hard to get senior civil service posts out of London"
There's too much "metropolitan elite type thinking", it's "suffocating", stifles "diversity of thought" 2/
The clear implication is this will not merely be junior officials. Nor limited to quangos or arms-length bodies - ie ONS to Newport or Environment Agency to Bristol in the past
"The key element" he said, is getting "higher propotion of senior civil servants" outside the M25 3/
Exc🚨A former Labour official behind the BBC Panorama on antisemitism has revealed he was the subject of a criminal investigation until last month
Sam Matthews was summoned for an interview under caution in the dying days of Corbyn leadership after a complaint by the party
1/5
Labour reported Matthews to ICO, which has powers to investigate criminal breaches and bring prosecutions leading to prison
It accused Matthews of breaching Data Protection Act by accessing/leaking data to the media
The stories concerned Labour's handling of anti-semitism
2/5
ICO criminal investigations team told Matthews on 19 Feb “You are now suspected of a criminal offence” and cautioned him
However, they dropped the investigation after he challenged the basis of their inquiries. ICO had to admit it had no evidence he unlawfully obtained data
3/5