The government’s Covid catch-up tsar has said he will not shy away from a “fight” with ministers over his advice for recovery plans.

Asked today how he would “persuade” the Department for Education to take on an evidence-based approach in the event of a disagreement, Sir Kevan Collins said he was “not going to walk away from a challenge or a fight”.

Appearing before the Commons Education Select Committee this morning, Sir Kevan was asked: “In terms of you developing the ambition into the strategy, you’ve said that you will give honest and fearless advice to the government about catch-up.

“Do you anticipate any scenarios where the department may disagree with your advice and, if so, how will you persuade the department to take on an evidence-based approach and to keep it going once your contract has finished?”

Covid catch-up tsar: ‘I’m not going to walk away from a challenge’

He responded: “One of the benefits of doing this at this time of my life is that I feel pretty unencumbered. I’ve got nothing really to lose other than to give people the best advice I can. 

“And, of course, I’m not going to walk away from a challenge or a fight in that. But, ultimately, we have to do the right thing. This is a moment - I’ve almost come out of semi-retirement to do this, because this is a moment of, I think, genuine national responsibility for all of us who care about young people. And I will give it straight to people in terms of what we need to do.

“I’ve only been in it three weeks, so I’m being a bit tentative about, you know, laying the law down, if you like, or laying down what needs to be done. But the key thing for me now is to talk to as many people as possible, to draw the evidence that I’m lucky to have, you know, knowledge of...to give straight and clear advice. I think it’s very important now that we’re not tentative, and we need to be fearless in the way that we respond to this.”