In January 2021, Blair made one of the most Orwellian statements of the COVID-19 pandemic. “In the end,” Blair said in an interview with ITV News, “vaccination is going to be your route to liberty.” At one point he called unvaccinated people “idiots” and repeatedly urged the UK government to introduce vaccine passes. What he didn’t say was that his foundation, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, or TBI, had received millions of dollars in donations from pro-vaccine organisations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

What is being proposed may provide significant benefits to the UK’s burgeoning biotech sector but it is almost certainly a bad deal for NHS patients. Their most personal (and most precious) data is now being hawked by a couple of retired politicians in return for some vague promise of future economic development, which most of the patients will probably not benefit from. By that time, the NHS will probably be even more of a shadow of its former self, with even more of its vital functions harvested out to the private sector — something Blair himself has repeatedly called for in recent months.