Private sector holds key to virus fightback

Tonight the Queen will address the nation, offering the kind of inspirational, non-partisan leadership that Britain needs. Her words implicitly touch upon a question that many have asked during this crisis: are we the same country that got through the Second World War? Her Majesty’s answer is a resolute yes: “The attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow feeling still characterise this country.”

Indeed, Britain has pulled together brilliantly to try to flatten the curve of infections and build up capacity in the NHS. But we also need an exit plan – and if the coronavirus really is like the Second World War then it’s time to do what Churchill did when the armaments started to run low and appoint a leading business figure to marshal industry into inventing and producing vaccines, tests and medical equipment.

It is good that the Government has regained the initiative with a grand strategy for testing, but even its goal of 100,000 tests a day by the end of April is too little, too late, especially given that most of them will only determine if someone currently has Covid-19, rather than if they’ve had it and thus might be immune. Britain needs a medical step-change as dramatic and imaginative as Rishi Sunak’s action to guarantee jobs and wages.

Factories are standing idle: let’s convert them. If specialised factories have to be built, there are thousands of builders with nothing to do, so let’s employ them. We obviously cannot rely upon civil servants to organise this because they don’t have the know-how or experience, and bureaucracy and red tape have already cost us valuable time.

Therefore, the PM should appoint a figure from the private sector to coordinate the medical fightback. There are plenty of chief executives around with the necessary experience, such as Lord Wolfson, head of Next and a man who knows how to get things done fast. The construction of NHS Nightingale Hospital in just a few days shows what Britain is capable of. It is time to turn that ingenuity, energy and teamwork towards testing and vaccines.