Jolyon Maugham has very graciously decided to cease his fight against Britain’s vaccine hero Kate Bingham over claims he made last year that she was an example of Tory cronyism. In a piece for The Guardian last November, Maugham ranted – without evidence – that Bingham’s appointment was an offence “to the England of my mind”. In a statement on his website today, however, he now says he is scrapping the planned legal battle, noting that the appointment process was “less poor than the government previously led us to understand”:

“We continue to await a hearing date from the High Court – but we have had an explanation from Government of the process that was followed for Kate Bingham to be appointed. That process was less poor than Government had previously led us to understand and so we will not challenge her appointment.”

The word he’s presumably looking for is “sorry”… 

In an excoriating response to the Good Law Project’s statement, Barrister Barbara Rich writes:

“It’s graceless, isn’t it? There is and was material in the public domain explaining the original evolution of the VTF from the biotechnology industry itself, and the confidence of that industry in this candidate to lead it when the government became involved.” 

In February, the legal director of the Good Law Project tweeted that Bingham might, in fact, have “ended up doing a good job”. It looks like the self-flagellating project has once again been out-foxed…