Boris Johnson’s plan to end most Covid rules in England was delayed at the last minute amid a row between the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and the health secretary, Sajid Javid, over funds for free testing.
Cabinet ministers were told of the delay as they arrived at No 10 on Monday morning during the final wrangling over the “living with Covid” strategy expected to be announced to the House of Commons in the afternoon.
No 10 acknowledged the plan was yet to be completed with just hours to go, with sources confirming there was disagreement over how much should be spent on providing free Covid tests for older and vulnerable people.
Johnson will announce the strategy later on Monday afternoon to the House of Commons, and is likely to announce an end to mandatory isolation, contact tracing and most PCR and lateral flow testing for Covid in the community.
The Guardian revealed last week that there was a split between Sunak and Javid over how much cash should continue to be spent on testing, with the Treasury pushing for as little as £1.3bn – a 90% cut from this year’s £15bn forecast spend. The Department of Health and Social Care had asked for billions more, which could have funded free lateral flow tests for symptomatic over-50s, but this was rejected by the Treasury.
The dispute is now centred on whether the DHSC could use some of its existing budget for a continuation of more community testing for longer.
A government source said there was still no agreement between the Treasury and the DHSC on the extent of the testing cuts, although another source at the DHSC said Javid had accepted the position that most testing must end.
The source denied Javid was seeking new money and said that instead he wanted to move funds from other areas within the department to cover the additional testing. “DHSC are absolutely not asking for additional funding; they want to reprioritise within the existing budget,” the source said.
One of the issues has been that the DHSC asked for enough funding for testing to ensure the survival of the Panoramic antiviral drugs trial, which officials believe would need free lateral flow tests for over-50s and vulnerable adults under 50 until at least September. However, officials are now looking at alternative ways of funding the recruitment of people for the trial.
The plan to end funding for most community Covid testing has angered the devolved administrations. Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, said if the figures were correct it would be “catastrophic for the UK’s ability to ensure adequate Covid surveillance, outbreak management etc in future”.
A Welsh government spokesperson said on Monday that “any decision to change the existing national testing programme would be premature and reckless”.
Scientists, medics and public health experts have already expressed concerns about the plan to scrap most PCR testing and restrict free lateral flows, probably to older age groups. The national contact-tracing service is expected to be wound down and schoolchildren will no longer be told to get tested twice a week.
Johnson is likely to announce the plan later on Monday in a Commons statement before giving a press conference, announcing an end to mandatory isolation in England and huge reductions in mass testing.
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said: “The government is paralysed by its own chaos and incompetence and the British public are paying the price. This shambles cannot continue.
“What confidence can the public have that the Conservatives are acting in the national interest, when they can’t agree a plan for Covid? It is clear the prime minister was trying to declare victory before the war is over, simply to distract from the police knocking at the door of No 10.
“Labour published our plan for living well with Covid in January. It would prepare us for new variants and secure our lives, livelihoods and liberties. If the Conservatives are too incompetent to agree their own plan, they are welcome to use ours.”
The delay came as one Tory MP expressed apprehension about the government’s plan to cut back on Covid testing in the community.
Tim Loughton, a former minister, said he was pleased the government was trying to get back to as much “normality as possible”. But he told the BBC’s Westminster Hour: “I have slight apprehensions in that I think we still do need to have testing available widely because I think that is the reassurance people can have that they’ve taken all possible precautions and they don’t want to infect other people.”
