Lockdown sceptics have criticised the appointment of Sir Patrick Vallance as a minister, claiming it shows Sir Keir Starmer is not serious about change.
Sir Patrick was unveiled as the new minister of state for science on Friday, having served as the Government’s chief scientific adviser from 2018 to 2023.
He became a household name during the Covid pandemic and would appear most days at televised briefings with Boris Johnson, the then prime minister, and Sir Chris Whitty, the chief medical adviser.
Speaking at the Covid Inquiry in November, Sir Patrick suggested lockdowns should have been “broader”, “harder” and “earlier”, while also arguing local restrictions were left too late.
Sir Keir came under fire after appointing the scientist to his frontbench team by those who questioned the severity of coronavirus policies at the time.
Richard Tice, the chairman of Reform UK and the new MP for Boston and Skegness, co-founded the party with Nigel Farage during the second national lockdown to oppose the Government’s direction of travel.
Lockdowns were catastrophic
Mr Tice told The Telegraph: “The reality is that we’ve been proven right on lockdowns, they were catastrophic at every level.
“What Starmer is doing is reinforcing the status quo. He’s actually, in a sense, protecting the objective of the Covid Inquiry, which is to validate the recommendations of the likes of Vallance and Whitty.
“Frankly, I think this appointment is a major conflict of interest and as such it’s disgraceful. There’s no change, there’s actually a doubling down of the establishment protecting itself.”
His concerns were echoed by Molly Kingsley, the founder of UsForThem, a parents’ group that fought to keep schools open during the pandemic.
She said: “I think it bodes really ominously for future pandemic policy.
“Starmer obviously made this massive thing about how they were all for change and accountability, but he’s carrying on with the old guard. How does this mark a break from the lockdown era?
“Why are we appointing someone when the pandemic response is subject to an ongoing inquiry, and is this appropriate to appoint someone to a ministerial role before the Covid inquiry has reached its conclusion? It speaks to a mindset of interventionist policy.”
Sir Patrick threw his support behind Labour’s green energy plan in the first full week of the election campaign, warning the race to net zero must be treated with the same immediacy as the search for a Covid-19 vaccine.
In 2020, it was revealed he had a £600,000 shareholding in a drugs giant that was contracted to develop a jab for the government. Downing Street insisted at the time “appropriate steps” had been taken to manage Sir Patrick’s interests.
Reckless free-for-all
Sir Keir was a staunch supporter of all three of the lockdowns introduced by Boris Johnson’s government.
In July 2021, he said Tory ministers had been wrong to lift all remaining restrictions on “freedom day” and called for them to urgently charge course as cases spiralled.
The new Prime Minister said the decision to scrap all virus measures on July 21 that year amounted to a “reckless free-for-all”.
When the Omicron variant took hold five months later, Sir Keir revealed he would vote for a circuit-breaker to combat the strain if Mr Johnson proposed one.
Labour was contacted for comment.
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