Tom Hurd has switched jobs on an acting basis to get the new centre up and running “within days”, officials said, though he remains a candidate to take over as the next director general of MI6 later this year.
The 55-year-old, the son of the former foreign secretary
Douglas Hurd, has no obvious scientific background, having worked as a diplomat at the UN, as a Middle East specialist and latterly in security.
Hurd and the prime minister have been described as friends. He is considered the frontrunner to to take over after Sir Alex Younger retires from MI6, once the biosecurity centre is established
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