An eerie silence suddenly befell Committee Room number six just after 4pm yesterday. Baroness Dido Harding had just explained to the Commons’ science and technology committee how she’d come to be head of our vital testing programme. The matter had been raised by Graham Stringer (Lab, Blackley and Broughton) who had politely pointed out that … Read more
Giving evidence to the Liaison Committee, Boris Johnson bluntly acknowledged that there is ‘not enough’ capacity for screening Boris Johnson admitted the government’s coronavirus testing system cannot cope today amid fears the UK faces ‘lockdown by default’ with schools forced to shut and workers unable to return to offices. The PM bluntly acknowledged that there … Read more
The testing fiasco is on the brink of dooming the country to a de facto lockdown with keeping schools open ‘unsustainable’, ministers were warned today. Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock are facing fury after the system descended into a shambles, with millions of people struggling to get checked. The Health Secretary was humiliatingly forced to … Read more
Britons seeking a coronavirus swab in Twickenham have been told to pretend they’re from Aberdeen in order to jump the queue – amid growing anger over the Government’s testing ‘shambles’. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has urged the public to not ‘game the system’ by changing their postcodes when requesting a test. But a glitch, revealed … Read more
Britons seeking a coronavirus swab in Twickenham have been told to pretend they’re from Aberdeen in order to jump the queue – amid growing anger over the Government’s testing ‘shambles’. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has urged the public to not ‘game the system’ by changing their postcodes when requesting a test. But a glitch, revealed … Read more
Parents, teachers and children face being put to the back of the queue for Covid tests as Matt Hancock admitted yesterday swabs will have to be rationed. In a humiliating climbdown, the Health Secretary said a ‘priority list’ would ensure environments such as care homes and hospitals would have enough. However, it comes at the … Read more
Covid tests will have to be rationed, Matt Hancock admitted yesterday. In a humiliating climbdown, he said a ‘priority list’ would ensure care homes, hospitals, schools and key staff had enough. In a torrid session in the Commons, the Health Secretary was also forced to admit the current critical shortages could drag on for weeks. … Read more
Border Force officials are only aiming to spot check fewer than a third of arrivals at Britain’s airports, it has been revealed. The government has introduced measures which require passengers arriving in the UK to fill out an online form before they arrive in the UK from any country. This includes countries or territories which … Read more
Border Force officials are only aiming to spot check fewer than a third of arrivals at Britain’s airports, it has been revealed. The government has introduced measures which require passengers arriving in the UK to fill out an online form before they arrive in the UK from any country. This includes countries or territories which … Read more
Fiasco doesn’t begin to do it justice. Perhaps omnishambles – a word first coined in the BBC political satire The Thick of It – comes a little closer. Or given the PM’s reliance on his trusted henchman Dominic Cummings to read the political runes, should it be Domnishambles? In reality, the events presided over by … Read more