Behind the story: Sajid vs Rishi and the cost of test and trace
In May 2020, NHS test and trace was set up with a budget of £22bn. A year later, they had been given an extra £15bn, totalling £37bn over two years.
This astronomical scale of money ploughed into the contact tracing regime has been blasted from all sides of politics, especially after it largely failed to produce a discernible impact on the number of Covid-19 cases.
Yesterday, Boris Johnson used this to justify getting rid of free Covid-19 tests. But this takes into account the entire testing operation, rather than counting the cost of the individual elements – for example free lateral flow tests.
In the early stages of the pandemic, some testing consultants were paid up to £1,000 a day because of a lack of staff. The Public Accounts Committee pinpointed this as one of the main drivers of cost to the taxpayer.
Sajid Javid, once Rishi Sunak’s boss in No11, found himself at loggerheads with the Chancellor and the feud delayed a Cabinet meeting to sign off the stripping back of restrictions and tests. Javid’s fight for cash was ultimately lost as Sunak fought to cut back on public spending to save pandemic-ravaged finances.