Boris Johnson’s profligacy problem

IF BRITONS GET a covid-19 vaccine next spring, the government wants them to thank Kate Bingham (pictured). A big shot in venture capital, she is the head of the government’s vaccines taskforce, a body which has placed early orders for 340m vaccine doses. She has also been in the limelight for less favourable reasons: her taskforce spent £670,000 ($883,000) on public relations advisers, she was accused of divulging sensitive information to an investor conference—and, to cap it all, she is married to a Tory minister.

Ms Bingham’s case represents the tensions in Boris Johnson’s government. To its fans, it is bringing in skilled outsiders to do jobs that politicians cannot, and stripping out the penny-pinching bureaucracy that hobbles ambitious programmes. To its critics, it has tossed aside proper spending controls and is becoming a chumocracy.