Vaccines tsar followed official script – only to be called ‘wacky and unreliable’
Kate Bingham derided by Hancock in messages after she questioned the need to inoculate the entire population
DAME KATE BINGHAM, the Government’s vaccines tsar, was branded “totally unreliable” and “wacky” by ministers after she questioned the need to inoculate the entire population.
The Lockdown Files suggest behindthe-scenes tensions between Dame Kate, who led the Vaccine Taskforce (VTF), and ministers and officials in the Department of Health and Social Care.
She was given a damehood in recognition of the success of her programme to acquire Covid vaccines, enabling the UK to become the first Western country to begin vaccinating citizens in December 2020. But Matt Hancock, then the health secretary, clashed with her over the rollout, including her refusal to back a plan to buy vaccines from India.
Advisers to Mr Hancock raised their concerns in October 2020 after Dame Kate gave an interview to the Financial Times in which she said the vaccination of the entire population was “not going to happen”. She explained: “We just need to vaccinate everyone at risk.” It is understood that she was following government policy at the time.
In leaked Whatsapp messages obtained by The Telegraph, Damon Poole, Mr Hancock’s media special adviser, said: “This is unhelpful,” and included with it a link to the article.
Mr Hancock said he did not have a subscription and then said: “But is that Kate?... If so, we absolutely need No10 to sit on her hard. She has view and a wacky way of expressing them & is totally unreinterview liable. She regards anything that isn’t her idea as political interference.”
Damon Poole
[sends link to FT article – Less than half UK population to receive coronavirus vaccine, says task force head] [04/10/2020, 21:22:01]
Damon Poole
This is unhelpful [04/10/2020, 21:22:09]
Matt Hancock
I don’t have a subscription but is that Kate? [04/10/2020, 21:36:36]
Damon Poole
Yes [04/10/2020, 21:36:41]
Matt Hancock
If so we absolutely need No10 to sit on her hard. She has view and a wacky way of expressing them & is totally unreliable. She regards anything that isn’t her idea as political interference [04/10/2020, 21:37:29]
Damon Poole
Yep – I had a blazing row with her when I was at no10. I’ll speak with them, it’s not her call and it is deeply unhelpful. [04/10/2020, 21:38:13]
Mr Poole, who previously worked in Downing Street, promised to raise the with the PM’S advisers.
Dame Kate was appointed chairman of the Vaccine Taskforce by Boris Johnson. She answered to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial
Strategy (BEIS). Two days later, in a further sign of tensions, Mr Hancock and his advisers suspected Dame Kate of leaking vaccine rollout plans to The Economist magazine. Mr Hancock asked Mr Poole on Oct 6 2020 if the leak was from the vaccines tsar. Mr Poole replied: “Well I don’t know that for sure but I have some evidence to suggest it might have been. I.e – the fact she had a meeting yesterday with the journalist who has the leak. But it’s an old NHS plan apparently, I’ve not seen the document yet.”
A month later, The Sunday Times reported that Dame Kate had spent £670,000 on PR consultants.
In a Whatsapp message to Mr Poole on Nov 7 2020, Mr Hancock admitted to being aware of the use of consultants but said he had not realised they were being paid for by the taxpayer. Mr Hancock said: “Who the hell signed this off ?… I knew she had these consultants. I was cross about them and asked for it to stop. But I had absolutely no idea taxpayers were paying for them. Unreal.”
Mr Poole said the use of advisers was “bonkers” and “pretty appalling”. At the time, BEIS said “specialist communications support was contracted by the Vaccine Taskforce for a time-limited period” and “in line with existing public sector recruitment practices”.
It is understood that the communica
tion consultants were contracted by BEIS to create a registry on the NHS website to recruit people onto clinical trials to test the vaccines.
Damon Poole
[shares Twitter link to article ‘Kate Bingham, chair of Boris Johnson’s vaccine taskforce, has charged taxpayers £670,000 for her own team of boutique PR consultants’] [07/11/2020, 21:01:20]
Matt Hancock
Who the hell signed this off? [07/11/2020, 21:39:11]
Damon Poole
They were organising all those interviews [07/11/2020, 21:39:36]
Damon Poole
Bonkers [07/11/2020, 21:39:41]
Matt Hancock
I knew she had these consultants. I was cross about them and asked for it to stop. But I had absolutely no idea taxpayers were paying for them. Unreal [07/11/2020, 21:41:19]
Matt Hancock
Obviously this would all have gone via BEIS not us – hence I couldn’t grip it [07/11/2020, 21:43:15]
Damon Poole
Yup [07/11/2020, 21:46:03]
Damon Poole
Pretty appalling [07/11/2020, 21:46:07]
Dame Kate agreed to take on the unpaid role as chairman of the taskforce for six months, staying for seven months until the deals had been made for proven vaccines in enough quantities for the UK. In December 2020 she left and was replaced by Dr Clive Dix, her deputy.
In February 2021 – when the Government had earned plaudits for vaccine rollout – Mr Hancock asked Nadhim Zahawi, then the vaccines minister, to arrange a meeting to explain to Dr Dix that “he knows to expect that I’m not going to give him executive authority but DO think he has a huge role”.
Mr Zahawi reported back that Dr Dix is “all sorted”. But two days later, on Feb 18 2021, the taskforce chairman told the minister he wanted to make a “personal decision” on whether the UK had enough vaccine doses.
That prompted Mr Hancock to question whether Dr Dix might quit. “He can’t threaten to resign and continue in post. Either you accept the principle of ministerial decisions making, or you don’t,” Mr Hancock wrote.
Matt Hancock
Do you have an urgent moment [16/02/2021, 10:39:45]
Nadhim Zahawi
On a call with charities [16/02/2021, 10:42:45]
Nadhim Zahawi
Txt me [16/02/2021, 10:42:48]
Matt Hancock
I want you to line up Clive Dix before I see him at 11:30. [16/02/2021, 10:47:56]
Matt Hancock
So he knows to expect that I’m not going to give him executive authority but DO think he has a huge role [16/02/2021, 10:48:30]
Nadhim Zahawi
Understood [16/02/2021, 10:50:08]
Nadhim Zahawi
Will call him at 10:30 [16/02/2021, 10:50:18]
Matt Hancock
How did it go? [16/02/2021, 11:16:08]
Nadhim Zahawi
All sorted. He doesn’t want exec authority, wants to be able to do his job assessing vaccine variants and engaging industry on this, as he did all the work before for kate and the steering Cttee and as long as he gets our support he is happy. He will ask for that support and regular meetings and I said I am happy to commit to that and Matt would be available to cut through any bureaucracy etc.. [16/02/2021, 11:25:54]
Matt Hancock
PERFECT [16/02/2021, 11:28:02]
Nadhim Zahawi
I am not going to talk to Pascal. I know that SI have approval WHO Emergency approval as of Feb 15th so they can distribute those doses to many countries in need including India. All in desperate need.
We expect to have 17m in March & April and 18 m in May 21m in June and 23 in July so enough to vaccinate all adults twice at faster pace than we are doing now.
I’ll make a personal decision based on the ministerial decision. I don’t need any other information. [18/02/2021, 14:30:52]
Nadhim Zahawi
From Clive. [18/02/2021, 14:31:54]
Matt Hancock
He can’t threaten to resign and continue in post. Either you accept the principle of ministerial decisions making, or you don’t [18/02/2021, 14:39:19]
Nadhim Zahawi
Exactly right. I have a call with him and Curevac at 3. He seems a drj and Mr hide as now he sends me really positive messages about expanding Braintree production for Curevac vaccine etc.. [18/02/2021, 14:40:40]
Later that day, just after 11pm, Mr Hancock sent Mr Johnson a message accusing Dame Kate and Dr Dix of blocking the purchase of vaccines from the Serum Institute of India (SII) four months earlier in October 2020.
“Nadhim & I have got to the bottom of why we didn’t get the SII doses when they were first offered in October,” Mr Hancock told then prime minister.
“Turns out it was blocked by Kate & Clive Dix. That’s why we kept getting b------t excuses. Thankfully it is nearly over the line now – but they’ve cost us six months on this one and the comms will need handling.”
Matt Hancock
Nadhim & I have got to the bottom of why we didn’t get the SII doses when they were first offered in October.
Turns out it was blocked by Kate & Clive Dix. That’s why we kept getting b------t excuses. Thankfully it is nearly over the line now – but they’ve cost us six months on this one and the comms will need handling. [18/02/2021, 23:07:35]
Boris Johnson
Aha. I do remember asking Kate ages ago I think she said it was all because the mhra wouldn’t approve it fast enough
And by the time mhra had approved ir we wouldn’t need it [19/02/2021, 06:41:09]
Matt Hancock
Yes. And it turns out it’s because she and Dix didn’t want to [19/02/2021, 08:14:38]
A spokesman for Dame Kate said: “These Whatsapps suggest that Matt Hancock was not aware of the published and agreed Government vaccine procurement policy, did not read the reports by and about the work of the Vaccine Taskforce, and did not understand the difference between complex biological manufacturing and PPE procurement.”