openDemocracy has learned that Andrew Gilligan, the controversial journalist and Boris Johnsons’ former ‘cycling tsar’, has been negotiating with private sector pathology laboratories on behalf of the government.
His key role appears to directly contradict ministerial claims that the UK’s response to coronavirus is being guided – at all times – by science and expert medical advice. Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, Jon Ashworth, is now calling on the government to “urgently update us on what their actual testing strategy is, and who is and who is not involved”.
With a chequered career as journalist, Gilligan’s appointment as Johnson’s ‘cycling tsar’ back in 2013 prompted accusations of cronyism. He is now a transport policy adviser to Johnson’s Downing street team.
