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The head of the UK coronavirus vaccine task force is expected to leave her post by the end of the year.
Government sources emphasized that Kate Bingham should always leave at this stage.
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer previously criticized the “unwarranted” spending of £ 670,000 of taxpayers’ cash on a team of public relations consultants for the vaccine czar under fire.
Kate Bingham is a mutual fund manager and wife of a Conservative minister.
Bingham, a mutual fund manager and wife of a Conservative minister, has used eight full-time consultants from Admiral Associates, a London public relations agency, to oversee her media strategy since her appointment earlier this year.
The Sunday Times reported that the consultants helped prepare Ms Bingham for media appearances, write statements and oversee a vaccine podcast on Spotify.
He was said to have “insisted” on hiring the consultants, despite concerns that they would duplicate the work of communications staff from the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
The newspaper also reported that the team’s hiring was signed by public officials and not Business Secretary Alok Sharma.
On a LBC Radio phone show on Monday, Sir Keir said the spending on public relations consultants “cannot be justified.”
The Labor leader contrasted the spending with the problems of small business owners, who had previously called up the program, during the coronavirus crisis.
“You cannot justify spending that amount of money,” he added.
“If only it was the only example.
“There are a lot of examples of for-profit contracts that don’t have due process and I think the public’s mood on this is very, very clear.”
Environment Secretary George Eustice did not defend Ms Bingham’s use of public relations consultants, suggesting it would have been better to use “internal” government resources.
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He told Sky News’ Kay Burley that Health Secretary Matt Hancock would be “monitoring all the work they do,” adding: “I don’t know if they were strictly public relations consultants or if they were management consultants in general.
“I used to work in that industry, but also as a press secretary for [former Conservative leader] David Cameron.
“So in general, I think these resources can come from the company. I don’t know the specific circumstances of those particular contracts.”
BEIS did not comment on The Sunday Times report.
But Whitehall sources said the vaccine working group employed specialist communications support for a limited period of time, and that contract details will be released in accordance with customary transparency rules.
The UK Vaccine Task Force was created by Hancock and Sharma.
It is led by the government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, and England’s deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan van Tam.
Ms. Bingham reports directly to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
She is married to Conservative MP Jesse Norman, a junior Treasury minister.
Mr. Norman is two years older than Mr. Johnson, and they both attended Eton College and later Oxford University.
Ms. Bingham attended Oxford University at the same time as Johnson’s sister, Rachel Johnson.
