Dame Kate Bingham, head of the UK’s vaccine task force, said the former health secretary staged an “extraordinary ambush” at a meeting in June 2020 and questioned her competence in front of cabinet colleagues and civil servants, even though she had previously a “friendly” conversation. . The former vaccine czar claimed Hancock had swapped “Dr Jekyll for Mr Hyde” because he was upset that responsibility for vaccines had been taken away from him and given to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Bay). Hancock, who resigned as health secretary last year after flouting Covid restrictions by kissing and hugging his then aide Gina Colandangelo, is expected to challenge Bingham’s criticisms in a book to be published later this year. The claims have been made by Bingham in an article for the Mail on Sunday and revolve around a virtual meeting held in June 2020, which was chaired by Michael Gove, who was then a cabinet minister. He was leading a team of experts who would find working Covid vaccines, ensure they could be manufactured at scale and then delivered into people’s arms by the end of the year. “Prior to the meeting, I had sought advice from Matt Hancock about the questions that might arise and how I should conduct myself. The tone of our conversation was friendly. “But when the committee debate itself came, the Health Secretary had swapped Dr. Jekyll for Mr. Hyde. “He began by suddenly saying that he couldn’t understand why I thought people his age – meaning mid-40s – wouldn’t want, or indeed demand, a Covid vaccine for themselves,” she wrote. Hancock started “a second rant” at the meeting, Bingham said, this time saying he “couldn’t believe” he had ordered only 30 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for delivery in September 2020. “When I remarked that it would be a miracle if we got 30 million doses of AstraZeneca by Christmas, Matt just broke down. He was constantly told by experts that things were impossible, he said, only to discover later that they were absolutely possible if enough effort was put in. “I could hardly believe my ears. The health secretary openly accused me of a lack of ambition, questioned my abilities and did so in front of his cabinet colleagues and key officials,” said Bingham, who told him he was wrong. She said other cabinet members who attended the meeting approached her after the meeting. “Gove couldn’t have looked more embarrassed. The business secretary, Alok Sharma, called me soon after to apologise. Others sent messages of support,” he said. Hancock appeared to have intervened because the task force was overseen by Bays, whose secretary of state, Sharma, was “insufficiently devious” to take him on, Bingham wrote. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. “I thought maybe he [Hancock] he was determined to fight this battle again, and if that included stones at me, then so be it. “He also knew that he would always win in a verbal fistfight with the soft-spoken Alok Sharma, who was not nearly as aggressive – and certainly not devious enough to take on the health minister,” he wrote. As a result of Hancock’s criticisms, Bingham said she invited Sir Richard Sykes, the former chairman of GlaxoSmithKline, to oversee the taskforce’s work. “I knew if he [Sykes] he didn’t think much about any aspect of our operation, then he would say so – out loud. Instead, a stamp of approval from him would be as close as I could get to armor,” he wrote. The Sykes review approved the task force’s work in July 2020. A managing director at venture capital firm SV Health Investors, Bingham was hailed for her work to ensure the UK was quickly supplied with ample doses of Covid vaccines in the midst of the pandemic. A spokesman for Hancock said he would publish his version of events in a book to be published later this year, the royalties of which would be given to NHS charities. “The vaccine effort has been a huge success and a huge team effort from the NHS to the Vaccine Working Group, from the University of Oxford to AstraZeneca. Matt is proud to have insisted that everyone across the UK had access to a vaccine and is delighted that the vaccine program got the UK out of the pandemic before almost everywhere else in the world. “You’ll have to read Matt’s book to find out what really happened,” the spokesperson said.
