Who is Sir Patrick Vallance? Ex-government scientist appearing at Covid inquiry

Ex-chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance will give his highly anticipated evidence today at the Covid inquiry.

Diary entries written throughout the pandemic by Sir Patrick are expected to provide new damaging details of the government’s handling of the pandemic.

Extracts from the diary have already caused a stir, with one entry describing “No 10 chaos as usual”, and on another occasion that Boris Johnson’s government was “all over the place and so completely inconsistent”.

Sir Patrick will give evidence at an all-day session on Monday led by Baroness Hallett in west London.

Who is Sir Patrick Vallance?

Sir Patrick was best known for being situated beside Mr Johnson during his televised Covid-19 briefings to the nation along with chief medical officer for England, Sir Chris Witty.

He served as the chief scientific adviser to the Government of the United Kingdom from 2018 to 2023 after his tenure as president of research and development at global pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.

In September 2020, it emerged that Sir Patrick owned shares worth £600,000 in the company, which was working on developing a Covid vaccine.

This led to claims of a potential conflict of interest, a claim denied by the Government who maintained the advisor was not involved in commercial decisions.

In August, as the pandemic de-escalated, Sir Patrick announced he would step down from his role to become the new chairman of the Natural History Museum’s board of trustees.

What he is expected to say during the Covid inquiry?

Sir Patrick is expected to be asked about advice he gave on the Johnson government’s strategy in the run-up to the first lockdown, including in February 2020, when there was a plan inside Downing Street to protect the most vulnerable but allow younger people to get the virus and build up “herd immunity” to Covid.

The ex-advisor was criticised by former health sectary and current Chancellor Jeremy Hunt for defending this approach to tackling the coronavirus.

Sir Patrick is also expected to address his Swedish counterpart, Andres Tegnell, who notoriously advocated for herd immunity approach to mitigate the pandemic and allegedly told the UK government they needed to do more to tackle Covid-19.

By early March the strategy was criticised, prompting scientists to call for closure of schools and a full lockdown.

The diaries have also revealed that Sir Patrick was not informed of Rishi Sunak’s “Eat Out To Help Out” scheme before it went live in August 2020.

The scheme which offered the public a 50 per cent discount on restaurant bills after the easing of the UK’s first lockdown, was widely blamed for helping to spread the virus.

The inquiry is expected to uncover more comments the chief scientific adviser made about the Prime Minister’s controversial scheme.

Sir Patrick also wrote about his own frustrations in dealing with the Mr Johnson where he alleged the then-prime minister suggested the pandemic was “nature’s way of dealing with old people” as he resisted lockdowns.

“(Mr Johnson is) obsessed with older people accepting their fate and letting the young get on with life and the economy going,” he said.

The inquiry has also heard that Mr Johnson demanded the police implement “tougher enforcement and bigger fines” for people who breached Covid rules early on in the pandemic, while the scientist also described a discussion with the prime minister as “complete bollocks”, adding: “As another person said, it is so inconsistent it is like bipolar decision-making.”

Sir Patrick has previously written that he and Sir Chris Whitty felt Number 10 officials were trying to “strong-arm” them into appearing by Mr Johnson’s side at a Downing Street press conference following Mr Johnson’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings’ press conference on his lockdown trip to Barnard Castle.

The journey was clearly against the rules and Mr Cummings’ televised appearance before the media was a “car crash”, the former chief scientist said in an entry in May 2020.

Who else will appear before the Covid inquiry?

Sir Patrick’s evidence will be followed by Sir Chris on Tuesday and Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, the UK’s former deputy chief medical officer next Wednesday, according to a timetable published by the inquiry.

The current chief scientific adviser, Professor Dame Angela McLean – who described Rishi Sunak as “Dr Death” in the weeks following the launch of the “eat out” scheme – will also appear before the inquiry on Wednesday, while Business Secretary Kemi-Badenoch and Dame Jenny Harries, a former deputy chief medical officer for England, are expected next Thursday.

Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak are expected to be called before the inquiry in early December, when they will mount their own defences of their time in office and handling of the pandemic.