The vaccine may not stop a Tory tier rebellion

Matt Hancock sounded like a man who had just been rescued from a rapidly sinking ship when he welcomed the start of the vaccine programme in the Commons this afternoon. Almost visibly dripping with relief, the Health Secretary told MPs that it was an ’emotional’ day, and paid tribute to his civil servants and team in the Department of Health for being ‘amazing’. The Health Secretary has naturally had one of the most challenging years of anyone to hold that post, and he hasn’t always had the back-up of his colleagues as he has tried to grapple with the pandemic. Perhaps that is why when it was the turn of Health Select Committee chair and former health secretary Jeremy Hunt to ask the minister a question, he congratulated Hancock and then asked whether and where he would be going on holiday next summer.

Hancock may feel by then that he has earned a well-deserved rest, not least because his emphasis over the past few months has been on the need for a vaccine before life could start returning to normal — often to the despair of colleagues who worried that this could mean years of restrictions before any immunisation gained approval for use.