Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic would have been “one heck of a lot worse” without the £37bn Test and Trace system.
It comes after a highly critical report, the Commons Public Accounts Committee said there was no clear evidence the scheme had contributed to a reduction in coronavirus infection levels.
To date, the Government has allocated £37bn to the the scheme - enough to pay for three Channel Tunnels.
However Mr Shapps told Sky News: “It certainly hasn’t been cheap fighting coronavirus but it has absolutely been necessary.
“9.1 million people have been contacted by Test and Trace. These are people who otherwise would be wandering round often unaware that they had coronavirus and spreading it around further.
“Whatever the coronavirus experience we have had as a nation, good or bad, it would have been one heck of a lot worse if we didn’t have a Test and Trace system which has contacted so many people and prevented the disease spreading further.”
Earlier this morning, Mr Shapps said he was https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/no-guarantees-can-foreign-holidays-5107628 but warned there were no “cast iron guarantees”.
Yesterday, Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) told the House of Commons he believes “terrible mistakes” were made in the tendering of contracts during the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.
But he said he was 'mystified' by claims the contracts were awarded to Conservative party cronies.
It came after Shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves said that contracts were handed out to “friends and donors” of the Conservative Party without any transparency.
