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Sir Patrick Vallance was officially made an Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in a ceremony today by the Duke of Cambridge Prince William
Sir Patrick Vallance today slammed the lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street as ‘very disappointing’ as he stuck the knife in to Boris Johnson after picking up a top honour at Buckingham Palace.
Speaking outside the royal residence after picking up the Order of the Bath medal, Sir Patrick said it was ‘really important at all stages that everyone stuck to the rules’.
But he said Partygate showed this ‘was not the case’.
The Government’s chief scientific adviser, who guided the country through the Covid pandemic, stood alongside Mr Johnson on countless occasions to explain why the public must follow social restrictions and lockdowns, alongside Professor Sir Chris Whitty.
Sir Patrick, 62, was today elevated to become a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath for his role in the Covid response.
He accepted the award from Prince William.
The Order of the Bath recognises the work of senior military officials and civil servants.
Sir Patrick was originally knighted back in 2019 but his new honour upgrades him to a higher rank.
Sir Patrick was named in the Government’s New Year Honours List 2022 for helping lead the response to Covid. Here is pictured with his wife Sophie Dexter after receiving his award
He was propelled to household fame by the Covid pandemic and was a regular feature of the daily televised Covid briefings during the pandemic
He was among the key scientists who spoke to the public about the virus during the now famous televised briefings from Government on the pandemic, often standing alongside the PM and ministers.
He received the upgrade as part of the Government’s New Year Honours List 2022 for having ‘led scientists tirelessly throughout the Covid response’ and for setting ‘clear expectations and parameters around the activities of SAGE’.
Fellow Covid scientists chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty, 55, and his former deputy, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, 57, also received honours.
Like Sir Patrick, Professor Whitty was also made a knight commander of the Order of the Bath.
Meanwhile, JVT, as he is affectionately known, became a knight bachelor, the standard level of knighthood. He was forced to miss out on his investiture ceremony last month due to catching Covid.
Sir Patrick’s response to the Covid pandemic has not been without controversy, however.
In March 2020 he was forced to defend the Government’s ‘herd immunity’ approach to not shutting down schools in the initial wave of Covid restrictions.
At the time he said the aim was to try and broaden the peak of the virus and build-up immunity within the population.
He was also criticised for presenting a now infamous chart in one of the televised briefings in October that year suggesting there could be a shocking 4,000 deaths per day by December 20 if pandemic restrictions were not imposed.
But the figures came from an outdated model based on a projection that there would be 1,000 deaths per day by the start of November.
In reality, the daily average was lower than 200, meaning the prediction was five times too high.
Sir Patrick has also defended SAGE modelling which forecasted thousands of daily deaths during the Omicron wave.
Some anti-lockdown Tory MPs labelled these projections as ‘scare mongering’.
But Sir Patrick, who still advises No10 on other pressing topics, like climate change, said it was his not his job to spread optimism but to give ministers the data that they needed to make decisions.
The scientist has also been praised for saying Covid management must become similar to flu, where vulnerable segments of the population receive an annual vaccine for the virus rather than jabbing the population every few months.
MailOnline revealed last month that Sir Johnathan was forced to miss his knighthood ceremony after testing positive for Covid and needing to self-isolate.
It comes as a defiant Boris Johnson ordered the Cabinet to ‘get on with the job’ and prove they deserve the backing of voters after buying himself time by fending off Tory rebels.
The PM gathered his senior ministers urging them to push the government’s ‘massive agenda’ of Levelling Up and reforming public services in the wake of the brutal confidence vote that saw more than 40 per cent of his MPs try to oust him.
Around the famous table in Downing Street, he thanked them for their ‘hard work’ in saving him from outright defeat yesterday.
But he demanded they come up with way of ‘cutting costs’ in government and getting better value for the taxpayer.
‘We are able now to draw a line under the issues that our opponents want to talk about,’ Mr Johnson said.
An extension of the Thatcherite right-to-buy, a joint cost-of-living speech with Rishi Sunak, the first migrant Rwanda flights, a series of high-profile foreign jaunts and a reshuffle of his team are all on the cards in the coming weeks as Mr Johnson tries to get back on track.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid told the session that the NHS is like ‘Blockbuster in the age of Netflix’, and must be reformed.
There were also fresh hints at tax cuts, although still not detail or firm commitments.
Mr Johnson is now theoretically immune from challenge for a year, but mutinous Tories have warned that they could mount another attack in a few months.
The party is on track for disaster in two by elections on June 23 with polls suggesting Labour could reclaim the Red Wall seat of Wakefield by a 20-point margin, while the Lib Dems are bullish about their prospects in the blue heartlands of Tiverton.
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