A FORMER chief scientific adviser condemned the government today for “running around like a bunch of headless chickens” in their attempts to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

Professor Sir David King, who served under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, said that from the outset Prime Minister Boris Johnson had lost a lot of time, despite receiving plenty of detail from China about Covid-19, in preparing a taskforce.

Such a body should have helped oversee the domestic manufacture of protective wear and ventilators that have been in short supply, as well as developing tests and extending testing capability, he said.