Chair of UK vaccine taskforce spent £670,000 on PR consultants

UK vaccines taskforce chair Kate Bingham is expected to step down from her post at the end of the year after it was revealed that £670,000 of taxpayers’ cash was spent on a team of PR consultants for her.

Kate Bingham, an investment fund manager and the wife of Conservative MP for Hereford & Herefordshire South, Jesse Norman, has used eight full-time consultants from Admiral Associates, to oversee her media strategy since her appointment earlier this year.

The Sunday Times reported the consultants had helped prepare her for media appearances, draft statements and to oversee a vaccines podcast on Spotify.

The newspaper also claims that Alok Sharma, the business secretary, did not sign off the expenditure, which has cost around £500K already, with contracts running until the end of the year. Instead, it was signed off by civil servants.

Full story: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/vaccine-tsar-kate-bingham-runs-up-670-000-pr-bill-sjxmrz2bx