She presided over the test-and-trace debacle. But it seems Boris Johnson is hellbent on embedding Torydom
They can shrink the state with fiscal austerity, but they can diminish it, too, by imposing state-shrinkers on its controlling heights. Not since the Victorians abolished patronage with open competition has any government so ruthlessly ushered its placemen into every nook and cranny of the public realm. To appoint Dido Harding as NHS England chief executive – she told the BBC’s Woman’s Hour that she’s considering applying – would signal a slide back to the dark ages of influence.
With a Downing Street nod, she’s in the running. From the world of business, with no NHS experience, she was made chair of NHS Improvement, overseeing all trusts. Again, without contest, she was put in charge of the test-and-trace project, possibly the most notorious public administration disaster in living memory.
