■ BORIS: WHY I’M NOT BUDGING ON RULE OF SIX

JOHNSON SAYS UK MUST AVOID FINANCIAL DISASTER OF SECOND LOCKDOWN AS HE FACES SCHOOLS WARNING OVER TEST FAILURES

BORIS JOHNSON has insisted the ‘rule of six’ must stay as Britain cannot afford another national lockdown – and admitted he cannot say when mass testing will be available.

The prime minister came under fire as the number of people being tested fell again yesterday to 221,192 and new cases soared to 3,991, the highest daily rise since May 8.

He promised MPs: ‘Everything is being done that we possibly can to increase testing capacity.’

And defending his decision to limit social gatherings to six people, he said: ‘I don’t want a second national lockdown. I very much doubt the financial consequences could be anything but disastrous.’ Mr Johnson said he ‘totally understands’ people railing against loss of liberty but added: ‘We are seeing unfortunately the progression of the disease from younger groups, up into the older groups.

‘We must expect those infections, proportionately, to lead to mortality.’

The prime minister was urged to ‘personally take charge’ of testing in an open letter from educational leaders yesterday.

He must step in to ensure schools can stay open, warned the Association of School and College Leaders, school leaders’ union NAHT and the National Governance Association.

ASCL general secretary Geoff Barton said 264 schools and colleges had reported that symptomatic staff and pupils had struggled to get tests recently. He said keeping schools open would become ‘unsustainable’ if testing problems were not fixed. Mr Johnson has said 500,000 tests a day will be carried out by the end of next month. And he believes frequent mass screening of millions of

people – with a quicker form of test that offers results in minutes – could allow near-normal life to resume.

However, he told the Commons liaison committee: ‘I am going to be cautious and say that I can’t sit here today and say that we have such a pregnancy-style test... today.

‘It is right for government to invest in such a project.’

Britain’s Covid death toll rose by 20 to 41,684 yesterday.

The fall in the number of tests being carried out comes despite labs having the capacity to carry out 374,917 a day. Computer glitches have led to centres being left deserted.

Mr Johnson said efforts to solve the problem would include ‘automation, batch testing and securing supplies abroad’, while four new laboratories were built and 300 people hired.

The PM added demand for tests had ‘massively accelerated’ in the last couple of weeks, as people wanted to ‘get on with their lives’ as normal.

‘That is perfectly reasonable, but the advice is people should seek a test not in those circumstances but when they have symptoms,’ he said.

Earlier, he was told ‘get some skates on’ at Prime Minister’s Questions by Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner. She said: ‘Care workers are still not getting the PPE they need, they’re not getting the testing they need. We are staring down the barrel of a second wave with no plan for the looming crisis.’