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UK acted unlawfully in appointing Dido Harding to key Covid role, judges rule

High Court finds government broke equality laws during coronavirus response

The UK government acted unlawfully and breached equality rules in appointing Baroness Dido Harding and businessman Mike Coupe to top jobs in its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the High Court ruled on Tuesday.

Two judges found that the then health secretary, Matt Hancock, did not comply with public sector equality duties in the government’s decisions to appoint Harding as interim chair of the National Institute for Health Protection in August 2020 and Coupe as director of testing for NHS Track and Trace in September 2020.

The court ruling followed a legal challenge brought by the Good Law Project, a campaign group, and the Runnymede Trust, a race equality think-tank, who had raised concerns that individuals with political links to the government were appointed to key positions during the pandemic.

The groups claimed that the recruitment process was not “fair and open” and ignored the government’s public sector equality duty, which requires it to eliminate discrimination and ensure fair access to opportunities.

Harding, the former chief executive of TalkTalk, is a Conservative peer who is married to Tory MP John Penrose and worked with Coupe when they were both at supermarket J Sainsbury.

https://www.ft.com/content/f13c3d34-...8-a08ef00bcaba