Keir Starmer only able to access coronavirus test because wife works in NHS

Labour leader tells TUC government failings on Covid are ‘holding Britain back’

Sir Keir Starmer has said that his family was able to access a coronavirus test on Monday only because his wife works in the NHS.

The Labour leader is self-isolating after a member of his family showed symptoms of Covid-19 yesterday morning.

But the symptoms appeared amid shortages of tests across the country, with reports that at times on Monday no tests of any kind were available in the 10 areas with the highest infection rates.

Speaking to the TUC congress via video link from a spare room in his London home, Sir Keir revealed that he only got a test arranged because of his wife Victoria’s job.

He branded the situation “completely unacceptable” and said it was the fault of Boris Johnson’s government, who should not be allowed to pass the blame on to public servants or excessive demand from members of the public.

Starmer said: “People shouldn't have to traipse halfway around the country in search of a Covid test when they're sick. “Yesterday, my family were able to get a test quickly when we needed one, but only because my wife works in the NHS in a hospital that provides tests for staff and their families.

“For thousands of people across the country, it’s a very different story.

“After six months of this pandemic, that's completely unacceptable.

“And whatever Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock might say, it's not the British people that are to blame for these mistakes. It is not the civil servants, care home workers or a mutant algorithm.

“It's the government. It's the government that's holding Britain back. And we should never let them forget that.”

Sir Keir said that the prime minister had failed to use the summer to “get the basics right, a testing system that works, an effective track and trace system”.

He took a swipe at the PM’s boosterist rhetoric, which has seen Johnson promise a “world-beating” app which is yet to materialise and a “moonshot” testing system able to process millions of people a day. , the Labour leader said: “We don't need world-beating, we need effective - a plan to protect care homes this winter and an exam system that parents and young people can trust”.

 “We don't need world-beating," said Starmer.  "We need effective - a plan to protect care homes this winter and an exam system that parents and young people can trust”.

He said: “The prime minister has failed on every count as infection rates rise and our testing system collapses, what are your priorities these last few weeks? Reopening old wounds on Brexit, trashing Britain's reputation abroad and making it harder for us to get the trade deal we all want.

“So my message to the prime minister is simple. Get your priorities right, get on with defeating this virus and get the Brexit deal you promised.”

In his first speech to the annual TUC congress as Labour leader, Starmer warned the UK “stands on the precipice of a return to Thatcher-era unemployment”.

He repeated his call for an extension to chancellor Rishi Sunak’s furlough scheme for workers in the industries worst hit by social distancing and lockdown restrictions.

He offered Mr Johnson cross-party support for a “genuine national plan” to protect millions of jobs and avoid the “scarring effect mass unemployment will have on communities and families across the country”.

“At this moment of national crisis we should take inspiration from our past,” said Starmer.

“Be willing to put party differences aside and work together in the interest of the country.  Imagine how powerful it would be if we could form a genuine national plan to protect jobs, create new ones and invest in skills and training.

“I’m making an open offer to the prime minister: work with us to keep millions of people in work. Work with the trade unions and work with businesses. Do everything possible to protect jobs and to deliver for working people.”

Labour has warned that chancellor Rishi Sunak’s “one-size-fits-all” plan to halt the furlough scheme across the economy on 1 November risks a giant wave of job losses in the weeks before Christmas.

Sir Keir acknowledged that the scheme - under which the state paid more than 9 million workers up to 80 per cent of monthly pay at the height of the pandemic - cannot continue forever in its original form.

But he insisted that "a better approach is possible”, involving a targeted job retention scheme for sectors like aviation and retail and areas hit by local lockdowns, as well as part-time working and training for those unable to go back to full hours.

The Labour leader also called for a ban on “fire and re-hire” practices, under which staff are laid off only to be re-employed under worse pay and conditions.

Branding them as “not just wrong but against British values", he said: “These tactics punish good employers, hit working people hard and harm our economy.

“After a decade of pay restraint, that’s the last thing working people need. And in the middle of a deep recession, it’s the last thing our economy needs.”