Sometimes politics is so ironic, it feels like satire. This week, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a new Covid corruption commissioner to investigate £7.6bn in dodgy and fraudulent contracts. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Keir Starmer promoted Chris Wormald, who ran the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) during the time those contracts were awarded, to the top job in the civil service.

A Truly Jaw-Dropping Juxtaposition

As ITV’s Robert Peston put it, the timing of these appointments is “astonishing.” One moment we’re vowing to root out Covid corruption, the next we’re handing the civil service’s top job to someone who oversaw the chaos. You have to wonder—what exactly did Starmer ask Wormald at his job interview? Did he grill him about the billions wasted on unusable PPE? Or did Wormald just shrug and say, “Well, it was a crisis, mistakes were made”?

Who’s to Blame?

Wormald couldn’t possibly be at fault—otherwise, Starmer wouldn’t have promoted him, would he? So who does Wormald think is responsible for all those loss-making contracts? The procurement fairy? A junior staffer no one’s heard of? Because someone has to take the blame.

It’s not like this is a minor issue. The National Audit Office has already revealed £9.9bn wasted on unusable and overpriced PPE. That’s enough to make taxpayers furious, especially when Reeves herself keeps calling it a scandal. If the corruption commissioner and the Covid Inquiry dig into this, what’s Starmer’s plan to defend Wormald?

Crisis or Scandal?

Sure, the early days of Covid were chaotic, and mistakes were inevitable. But there’s a difference between inevitable errors and “scandalous” mismanagement, as Reeves puts it. Can taxpayers really be expected to forgive and forget when billions disappeared into the void?

Everyone says Wormald is capable, and maybe he is. But promoting the person in charge of DHSC’s finances during this mess feels like a gamble. If Starmer has a plan to square these two stories, it better be good—because blaming the procurement fairy won’t cut it.