The Labour Party has called for the government to investigate after the head of the UK’s vaccine Taskforce shared the nation’s plans with private firms in the US.
Shadow cabinet member Rachel Reeves expressed concern that “the law could have been broken” following reports Kate Bingham had shared government documents at a $200-a-head networking event for female financiers in the US – which included details of vaccines the UK may invest in.
The government denied any wrongdoing by Ms Bingham, claiming that all information shared had been cleared for release by Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy.
According to The Sunday Times Ms Bingham, who leads the governments vaccine taskforce and serves as managing director of private equity firm SV Health Investors, produced documents marked “official sensitive” which outlined both vaccines UK officials were looking to support and details on expected uptake among the British public.
Ms Reeves, shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “These revelations are deeply concerning – not only because trust in a government official is in jeopardy but because the law could have been broken.
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“It also really doesn’t do much for public confidence at all that this is yet another close friend of the Conservative Party – there are serious questions to answer about these links. I will be writing to the Cabinet Secretary for a swift investigation into this.”
The government said claimed the documents revealed by Ms Bingham were all given the green light by Whitehall officials.
“The fact of her appearance and the content of her presentation received approval from officials at the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy in line with the process governing such engagements”, a spokesperson said.
“Kate Bingham focused on publicly available information and said little that expert delegates at the conference could not deduce themselves.”
They added that Ms Bingham has “placed the UK at the leading edge of the international effort to fight the Covid-19 pandemic”
