The public deserves consistent and clear messaging on Covid

Editorial: Yes, there will always be individuals seeking to put information into the public domain, but the government has to do better at – or at least look like it is – keeping its messaging under control

10 January 2021 (Brian Adcock)

So what is the future for lateral flow tests (LFTs) – paid for or free? The former vaccine minister and now education secretary Nadhim Zahawi was clear that ministers were “absolutely not” planning on ending free LFTs, after a report that free tests are to be limited to high-risk settings – such as care homes, hospitals and schools – and to people with symptoms.

Mr Zahawi said he was “slightly puzzled by” the story in The Sunday Times, which quoted a “senior Whitehall source” who suggested that there were concerns about the cost of the testing regime and that an announcement over LFTs could come within weeks. Downing Street sources also called the report “incorrect”, saying it was too early to say what the future holds for free LFTs.

It is not the first time we have been down this road during the Covid-19 pandemic, with suggestions on strategy popping up in the public domain, only to be denied by ministers (and then potentially resurfacing again later). It is obvious that both within the cabinet and Downing Street there are splits over what is seen as the best way forward. So it’s possible that such reports are being used to test the public reaction to possible future measures – or at least, that individuals may be seeking to do so.

If that is the case, then this suggestion over LFTs has certainly received plenty of attention. Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted that any such move would be “wrongheaded” and that it would be “hard to imagine much that would be less helpful to trying to ‘live with’ Covid”.

With health one of the areas where there are devolved powers, Ms Sturgeon was swift to point out that Scotland had “certainly not signed up” to any changes on LFTs and she questioned what would happen to funding for UK nations for testing if free LFTs were to end. Labour joined Ms Sturgeon in condemnation, with the shadow health secretary Wes Streeting calling it the “wrong decision at the wrong time” and “penny wise and pound foolish”.

Potential backlash thoroughly gauged, then. However, the bigger issue – as at several other points during this pandemic – is that the discussion over potential moves overshadows actual messaging about what is happening now. The public is left with another layer of information that the government is then forced to deny, or reiterate if it does become policy.

You have to wonder, will the government ever learn its lesson? Yes, there will always be individuals seeking to put information into the public domain, but the government has to do better at – or at least look like it is – keeping its messaging under control. This government has a reputation for U-turns and changing information that is rightly earned, and the public deserve better.

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The denials over LFTs somewhat obscured the fact that Mr Zahawi has also said that cutting the self-isolation period to five days would help mitigate some of the pressures schools and the NHS are facing and that it would be useful for it to happen “as soon as possible”.

Mr Zahawi added that the government would be driven by the “advice of experts” on the matter but that he hoped the UK would be “one of the first major economies to demonstrate to the world how you transition from pandemic to endemic and then deal with [Covid] for however long it remains”.

That is one of the more transparent messages the government has sought to get across – and it is correct in saying that the transition will have to happen at some point – but the public need to be able to move with clarity of purpose.