Going into government, for me, was quite a shock,” Bingham says, speaking in the modest offices of SV Health Investors in central London, where the 56-year-old is managing partner of life sciences. He was a lecturer in Politics at Oxford University 1989–96, specialising in American and British Government. She chaired the UK Government’s Vaccine Taskforce, which steered the procurement of vaccines and the strategy for their use during the pandemic. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties.

Unless she had insisted on directly reporting to the Prime Minister when she took the job, she “probably wouldn’t have succeeded, because there would have been too many people in the chain telling us we couldn’t do it”. This isn’t the first time Bingham has criticised Government operations, but the 312-page book is perhaps the most brutal. The Financial Times and its journalism are subject to a self-regulation regime under the FT Editorial Code of Practice. I thought that perhaps he [Hancock] was determined to refight that battle and, if that involved throwing rocks at me, then so be it. The tale of Britain’s vaccination effort against Covid-19 ends happily, of course: the task force arranges for clinical trials, secures 350 million doses of six vaccines, oversees any amount of novel infrastructure for their manufacture and distribution, and delivers Covid-19 as close to a knock-out blow as one could reasonably dream of.

But it wasn’t until the summer of 2020 – when Bingham attended her first meeting in Downing Street, that she realised just how much the hierarchical, bureaucratic system could obfuscate work. But, as she works her way through the list, Bingham has saved her “biggest gripe” for last: leadership, expertise, and a reversion to an “adversarial” relationship with industry since her exit.

Meanwhile Matt Hancock launched an “extraordinary ambush… trading in Dr Jekyll for Mr Hyde”, as he questioned her competence in front of his cabinet colleagues at one meeting. K. The authors combine a lucid explanation of the scientific breakthroughs needed to create the first Covid vaccine with an insider look at the politics that hampered the taskforce's efforts. However, the first NHS patient received a vaccination on December 8 of the same year and nearly every UK resident has now had the jab.He can claim responsibility for appointing Kate and allowing her to work with who she chose but the real credit should go to Kate and all involved with the VTF. I knew if he [Sykes] didn’t think much about any aspect of our operation, then he’d say so – loudly. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. He also knew that he’d always win in a verbal punch-up with the mild-mannered Alok Sharma, who was nowhere near as aggressive – and certainly insufficiently devious to take on the health secretary,” she wrote. Now, nearly every adult in Britain has had the jab, lockdowns have ended and we can finally live with Covid.