Who is Brigadier Phil Prosser?

The government’s coronavirus press briefings are back with a new face, that of Brigadier Phil Prosser.

It’s not the Brigadier’s first time helping the government’s pandemic efforts. In March 2020, his Aldershot-based 101 Logistics Brigade, known as the Iron Vipers due to its snake logo, distributed PPE across the country. Prosser also led the speedy construction of the Nightingale hospitals. Now, as a central figure in the vaccine delivery programme, he will chair daily 8am meetings, delivering updates on where he is preparing to “dispatch military surge teams” to ensure the roll-out remains on schedule.

The Welsh veteran, who was commissioned into the Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers after graduating from Cranfield University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1992, has served operational tours in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq as a crisis management expert. In 2010, he completed the year-long Advanced Command Staff Course for officers cherry-picked for senior leadership roles.

Since 2016, he has worked on the MoD’s Defence Equipment and Support service as an operational support team leader, in charge of a large team working to provide customers with “world class support solutions” for “over 58,000 vehicles, deployed globally”. So he knows a thing or two about logistics.

Prosser has a young daughter with his wife, Shanni, who is a physiotherapist. His friends say he is a “proud Welshman”, “a cycling enthusiast” and a diehard fan of the Scarlets, the Llanelli rugby team.

Prosser made it clear at the Number 10 press conference on Thursday afternoon that his presence wasn’t a replacement service, but that he would work “shoulder to shoulder with the exceptional NHS team”. His unit will also provide “equal access” to the vaccine across the country and “reach the clinically vulnerable” as a priority.

“Our mission is to support the NHS,” Prosser said. This will be done by “delivering the maximum amount of vaccine” to “minimise infections and deaths” and would be achieved “as quickly and as safely as possible”.