UK Cabinet split on COVID testing policy

LONDON — A meeting of Boris Johnson’s top ministers to sign off a plan for further relaxing COVID rules was delayed Monday because of a last-minute row over testing. 

The U.K. Cabinet was expected to agree to end compulsory isolation for people with coronavirus and to phase out free lateral flow tests for everyone as part of what has been called the “living with COVID” strategy. 

However, the meeting was pulled with less than ten minutes’ notice due to an impasse between Health Secretary Sajid Javid and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, according to officials with knowledge of the process.

One department of health official said that Javid and Sunak were at odds over funding for COVID testing, which Javid would like to see continue for longer. 

The impasse is understood to center on how DHSC spends the money it already has rather than asking for more.

The official called it “embarrassing” that the disagreement had not been resolved over the weekend, adding: “They should have been locked in a room or call last night. They pointed out it was becoming part of a pattern between the two secretaries of state, who reportedly clashed over plans for tackling the NHS backlog at the start of the year.

The prime minister’s spokesman confirmed the meeting was postponed in order to finalize the plans for living with COVID and it was always “an iterative process.”