Claims that funding cuts have hampered  Public Health England’s (PHE) handling of the coronavirus outbreak “simply don’t hold water” says Annabel Denham, Director of Communications at the Institute of Economic Affairs.

Writing for City A.M., Annabel references the latest report from IEA Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon – ‘False Economies: Myths about public health spending’ – which notes PHE’s budget for infectious diseases rose by over £30m between 2014/15 and 2018/19.

Instead the focus should be on how much of the organisation’s £4 billion annual budget was “diverted towards the nanny state regulation”.

Read the full piece here.