MPs expressed astonishment last night after it emerged Boris Johnson was preparing to spend more than £40billion on his mass Covid testing programme.
The ‘absolutely staggering’ sum – almost three times the annual policing budget – will help deliver on his ‘operation moonshot’ pledge to help beat the pandemic.
But backbenchers warned that it would necessitate higher borrowing and raised the risk of tax increases.
MPs have become increasingly concerned about the huge amounts the Government is spending on the coronavirus crisis.
MPs expressed astonishment last night after it emerged Boris Johnson (pictured, today) was preparing to spend more than £40billion on his mass Covid testing programme
In July, ministers revealed £15billion had been spent on personal protective equipment, largely because suppliers had increased the price so much, while billions more has been spent on the furlough scheme and loans to help prop up struggling businesses. The Government has already borrowed more than £200billion so far this year.
Under his ‘moonshot’ strategy to get on top of the virus and open up the economy, the Prime Minister has promised a mass-testing programme to screen millions of people a week.
The extraordinary costs of the plan began to become clear yesterday when Public Health England issued a contract worth £22billion for a new national testing framework, which includes the manufacture and development of tests for the NHS over the next four years. The NHS has issued another tender worth £20billion which includes on-the-spot tests and diagnostics equipment.
The lateral flow tests have a turnaround time of under an hour and do not require laboratories. Two thousand soldiers were drafted in to assist with the pilot testing scheme (pictured)
A third tender for £1billion, covering just three and a half months, is for the supply of rapid turnaround ‘lateral flow’ tests. The contract could be enough to supply tests for the entire population.
The scale of the contracts dwarfs the £15.2billion budget of the police in England and Wales and that of several government departments. And it is equivalent to a third of the annual revenue budget for NHS England.
Former minister Steve Baker, a backbencher who sits on the Commons Treasury committee, said: ‘Such a sum is absolutely staggering. The returns will have to become very clear very quickly or we will throw away our centuries-old reputation for fiscal prudence.
It follows the first trial of city-wide testing in Liverpool, where its 500,000 residents are being offered tests Pictured: Soldiers at The Exhibition Centre in Liverpool, which is one of the testing centres part of the mass Covid-19 testing in Liverpool
‘At present the Bank of England is printing money hand over fist to keep the bond market going.
‘This money-printing and borrowing is going to return and smack us round the back of the head before we’re all much older.’
Yesterday Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed that mass testing for coronavirus will be rolled out to 67 more parts of the country.
Areas including Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, the West Midlands and several London boroughs will receive the rapid Covid-19 tests within days. At least 600,000 lateral flow tests will be sent out this week to kick-start the next stage of mass coronavirus testing, which ministers hope will root out asymptomatic cases.
It follows the first trial of city-wide testing in Liverpool, where its 500,000 residents are being offered tests.
Mr Hancock told the House of Commons yesterday afternoon: ‘The next step is to roll out this mass testing capability more widely’
Officials said some 10,000 tests will be made available to each area to help them start testing priority groups, which will then be followed up with a weekly allocation.
The lateral flow tests have a turnaround time of under an hour and do not require laboratories.
Mr Hancock told the House of Commons yesterday afternoon: ‘The next step is to roll out this mass testing capability more widely.
‘So I can tell the House that last night I wrote to 67 directors of public health who have expressed an interest in making 10,000 tests available immediately and making available lateral flow tests for use by local officials, according to local needs, at a rate of 10 per cent of their population per week. That same capacity – 10 per cent of the population per week – will be made available to the devolved administrations too.’
The Department of Health and Social Care said areas had been prioritised based on the local prevalence of Covid-19 and expressions of interest from their public health directors. Any director who wants to start rolling out lateral flow tests can do so by contacting the department.
Local teams could direct and deliver testing ‘based on their local knowledge’, the department added.
Areas due to receive the tests include Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle, Sunderland, Wolverhampton, Manchester, Luton and several London boroughs.
Coventry city council, which is among the local authorities to be part of the mass testing programme, hailed news of the additional tests.
George Duggins, Labour leader of the council, welcomed the initial batch of 10,000 tests but added: ‘It is noticeable [the extra testing capacity] comes with no additional funding for rolling it out or implementing, which means additional expense to all local authorities.
‘We will of course do that, but all local authorities need to be reimbursed for the considerable work they are all doing in helping to fight the pandemic.’