
A VENTURE capitalist has been urged to resign as the head of Britain’s coronavirus vaccine taskforce after it was revealed that she shared secret government documents with US financiers.
Kate Bingham, who is married to Tory Treasury minister Jesse Norman, spent an hour talking about the government’s Covid-19 strategy during a “premier webinar and networking event” last month for women working in private equity.
Footage of the event — for which virtual attendees paid about £160 each — seen by the Sunday Times shows Ms Bingham’s presentation slides which include a list of vaccines that the government is monitoring and could later invest in.
Some of the vaccines listed are reportedly owned by publicly listed companies, which could therefore be invested in by those involved in the webinar.
Ms Bingham was appointed by PM Boris Johnson in May to lead efforts to research and produce a coronavirus vaccine despite her complete lack of expertise in the field. She retains her role as a managing partner of SV Health Investors, a Boston-based venture capital firm.
GMB union national secretary Rehana Azam warned that the vaccine scheme, like the contact-tracing scheme inexplicably led by Dido Harding, are being treated as “cash cows.”
“The true story of the pandemic will be the plan by the government to asset-strip the public, close our businesses and raid our public services,” she said.
Sir Alistair Graham, a former chairman of the government’s committee on standards in public life, said that Ms Bingham’s talk had been “seriously ill-advised” and that she was an example of “pretty shocking” recruitment process in government.
“It must raise a question as to whether she is a suitable person to be chairing a taskforce like that,” he said.
Rachel Reeves, shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said the revelations are “deeply concerning” and that “the law could have been broken.”
“I will be writing to the Cabinet Secretary [Simon Case] for a swift investigation into this.”
A government spokesman said: “Kate Bingham’s focus is on her work as chair of the Vaccines Taskforce … Her job also involves a significant role in public education, including via the media, and appearances at conferences such as this one.”