MATT HANCOCK was accused of using “blame and denial” to distract from the Tories’ failures on Covid-19 as he confirmed plans to axe Public Health England (PHE) today.

The Labour Party joined medics in condemning the Department of Health’s plan to replace PHE with a new “hybrid” body with immediate effect, branding it “desperate” and potentially dangerous as the pandemic continues.

The new National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP) will respond to health threats including infectious diseases, pandemics and biological weapons, Mr Hancock said.

Baroness Dido Harding will temporarily head the new agency — an appointment that has sparked controversy due to her bungling as chief of the government’s Covid-19 test and trace programme.

Ms Harding’s husband is Tory MP John Penrose, a board member of the 1828 think tank which argues that Britain should scrap the NHS for an insurance-based system.

Doctors for the NHS chairman Colin Hutchinson, a retired consultant eye surgeon, said the axing of PHE “smacks of dogma rather than sound management.”

He likened it to reorganising deckchairs on the Titanic “when we know there are still so many icebergs around.”

“The public health system in this country has been starved of funding to an even greater level than hospitals and primary care. It has seen major loss of staff and centralisation of its laboratory services and has been set priorities of tackling diseases attributed to ‘lifestyle choices,’ while the risk of infectious diseases has been overlooked,” he said.

“We should be very wary of this government-sponsored reorganisation. Rome is burning; time is running out.”

Shadow public health minister Alex Norris branded the move “a desperate attempt to shift the blame” after years of cuts.

Mr Hancock admitted that the finer details — such as who will take over PHE’s responsibilities on tackling obesity, improving air quality, sexual health, and promoting smoking cessation — were still being worked out.

Some tasks will be handed over to councils, which have had their public health budgets repeatedly slashed, and the NHS.

Mr Hancock blustered that investment in public health would continue but did not say how much the sector will receive in future. He said that there will be more private-sector “partnership” in future and urged firms to “join us in the mission.” 

Ian Hudspeth, chairman of the Local Government Association’s community wellbeing board, said that any shift of PHE’s responsibilities to councils would need to be supported with the necessary funding.

Gill Walton, chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, likewise called for increased funding to cope with future public health demands.

“It doesn’t help that public health budgets have been cut by a quarter in the last five years,” she said.

Citing steps to tackle “significant risks already endemic in this country,” she said: “It was welcome to hear the Secretary of State acknowledge the importance of that work, but he was light on ideas.”

Ms Walton questioned whether it was the right time to be making big organisational changes in the bodies tasked with fighting Covid-19.

“We need staff who work there to have their eye on the ball and to not be distracted by change,” she said.

“None of what we have heard from the Secretary of State today reduces the need for there to be a full public inquiry into the pandemic.

“We need independent people — not ministers or their advisers — to look into how prepared we were, how well we did, what lessons we can learn and what changes we can make.”