Following yesterday’s news that health secretary Sajid Javid had tested positive for Covid, it seemed only a matter of time before other cabinet ministers were similarly forced to self-isolate. Javid had a ‘lengthy’ meeting with Boris Johnson on Friday afternoon, just hours before his symptoms developed. So, surely the Prime Minister will be expected to self-isolate? Think again…
This morning, No. 10 has released the following statement:
The Prime Minister and Chancellor have been contacted by NHS Test and Trace as contacts of someone who has tested positive for Covid. They will be participating in the daily contact testing pilot to allow them to continue to work from Downing Street. They will be conducting only essential government business during this period.
Johnson’s involvement in the coveted ‘daily contact testing pilot’ means he instead gets to be one of the lucky few who take daily tests, only going into self-isolation if the tests come back positive. Michael Gove also managed to avoid self-isolation as part of the scheme after he was pinging following a jolly down to Portugal for the Champions League.
An extraordinary stroke of good luck then that the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the head of the Cabinet Office were all selected to be part of the scheme. Especially when you remember that the government assured us that participants were ‘placed into study groups at random’.
It’s important to note too that the Johnson and Sunak would have been contacted by official contact tracers, meaning that without their involvement in the scheme, there would have been a legal requirement for them to self-isolate. Half a million Brits weren’t lucky enough to enjoy this nice little loophole:
The pilot currently only covers 20 organisations — one of which is No. 10. Others include Network Rail, Transport for London, Heathrow and Border Force. There are, apparently, just 40,000 trial participants out of these vast organisations. And yet three of them happen to be sitting around a cabinet table of just 23 full members.
One rule for thee, but not for me…
UPDATE: Chancellor Rishi Sunak has now U-turned, saying he will self-isolate, contrary to the statement put out by No. 10 this morning.
UPDATE TWO: No. 10 has put out a statement saying Boris Johnson will now self-isolate at Chequers:
The Prime Minister has been contacted by NHS Test and Trace to say he is a contact of someone with Covid.He was at Chequers when contacted by Test and Trace and will remain there to isolate. He will not be taking part in the testing pilot. He will continue to conduct meetings with ministers remotely. The Chancellor has also been contacted and will also isolate as required and will not be taking part in the pilot.
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