‘We absolutely need No10 to sit on her hard’: Matt Hancock ‘clashed with vaccine tsar Dame Kate Bingham and branded her “wacky” after she questioned the need to jab everyone in the UK’, leaked WhatsApps reveal
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Matt Hancock described the former Government’s vaccines tsar as ‘wacky’ and ‘totally unreliable’ after she questioned the need to give the entire population the jab, leaked WhatsApp messages reveal.
Dame Kate Bingham was responsible for overseeing the UK effort to find and manufacture effective Covid-19 vaccines and in October 2020 she told the Financial Times that the vaccination of the entire UK population ‘was not going to happen’.
After being sent her comments by Damon Poole – Mr Hancock’s media special adviser – the former Health Secretary said: ‘We absolutely need No10 to sit on her hard,’ the Telegraph has reported.
He then described her by saying: ‘She has a view and a wacky way of expressing them & is totally unreliable. She regards anything that isn’t her idea as political interference.’
The revelation comes after Isabel Oakeshott – Mr Hancock’s ghostwriter for the book Pandemic Diaries – handed more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages to the newspaper.
In leaked WhatsApp messages Matt Hancock described the former Government’s vaccines tsar as ‘totally unreliable’
Dame Kate Bingham was responsible for overseeing the UK effort to find and manufacture effective Covid-19 vaccines
In June 2021 it was revealed that Ms Bingham was going to be awarded a damehood in recognition for her work leading the UK Vaccine Taskforce (VTF).
She served as the unpaid chairman of the taskforce for seven months before resigning in December 2020.
Also revealed in Mr Hancock’s leaked WhatsApp messages were calls from the former Health Secretary’s aides asking if they could ‘lock up’ former UKIP leader ‘pub hooligan’ Nigel Farage in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The leak has already shown Rishi Sunak and Mr Hancock complaining about Dominic Cummings’ ‘nightmare’ tenure in Downing Street, as well as the then health secretary’s repeated concerns that the then chancellor’s signature Eat Out To Help Out initiative was contributing to the spread of Covid-19.
It has also revealed Mr Hancock’s desperate 41-hour scramble to try and save his career after The Sun was handed photos revealing his affair with Gina Coladangelo, featuring the pair kissing in breach of his own social distancing rules.
As revelations continue to emerge, Mr Hancock was also found to have told aides that he wanted to ‘frighten the pants off everyone’ to ensure compliance with Covid-19 restrictions.
The former Health Secretary discussed when the government should ‘deploy’ the new strain to scare the public.
Cabinet Secretary Simon Case was also found to be suggesting in January 2021 that the ‘fear’ factor would be ‘vital’ in stopping the spread of the virus.
Mr Hancock has said in response to the leaked messages that he is ‘hugely disappointed and sad at the massive betrayal and breach of trust by Isabel Oakeshott’.
He also said: ‘There is absolutely no public interest case for this huge breach. All the materials for the book have already been made available to the Inquiry, which is the right, and only, place for everything to be considered properly and the right lessons to be learned.
‘As we have seen, releasing them in this way gives a partial, biased account to suit an anti-lockdown agenda.’
Source: Daily Mail UK
