Ministers have been urged to crack down on rip off Covid-19 tests as new analysis found just a handful available at low prices boasted about by the Government.
Hundreds of thousands of Brits are expected to return home in December - many for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
And on Tuesday, the Department of Health and Social Care claimed “the average price of a day two test was £45, with many available for £20.”
But Labour ’s analysis, published today, found just two providers out of 434 had tests available for £20.
And just 7% listed on Gov.uk had tests available for under £45.
Of the top 30 cheapest providers, just four have availability at the advertised price - with costs tripling for available tests.
The competition watchdog has been telling ministers to crackdown on so-called “bait pricing” for months.
And today, Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh urged Health Secretary Sajid Javid to take action.
She said: “Ministers are not only refusing to take action, they are actively promoting these scams on their own website.
“By refusing to take the basic action demanded by the regulator, the Government are forcing people to pay way over the odds.
“The government must finally act ahead of the Christmas travel period, introduce a price cap to tackle the extortionate prices, and finally clean-up this racket.”
A spokesperson for the UK Health Security Agency said: “There are currently a wide range of tests available online and we continue working to make the market fair and transparent for everyone.”
A staggering 90 providers on the government’s website - some 21% - are charging more than £100 for tests.
And some providers are listed charging up to £399, adding huge additional cost to travel.
A review by the Competition and Markets Authority in September found that the £490m industry was setting “extremely high mark-ups” which “could not be explained by costs”.
They said unexplained high prices were “indicative of consumers getting a poor deal.”
The watchdog urged Ministers in September to ban “bait-pricing” where firms advertise products with limited or no availability only to charge many times that price for the products they do have available.
Labour today wrote to Mr Javid, demanding Ministers urgently consider a price-cap, and take the tough enforcement action demanded by the regulator to tackle the extortionate costs ahead of the busy Christmas period.
