Boris Johnson announced the ending of all remaining coronavirus legal restrictions in England, but only after a fierce cabinet row broke out over the cost of future testing for the disease.
The UK prime minister was cheered by Conservative MPs after he announced that England was “moving from government restrictions to personal responsibility” in the way it dealt with the virus in future.
The legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive Covid-19 test will be scrapped from February 24. Free testing for the general public will end on April 1, although it will continue for the elderly and vulnerable, and social care staff who are symptomatic.
But Johnson warned that the government’s scientific advisers believed that there may be “significant resurgences”, adding: “They are certain there will be new variants and it’s very possible those will be worse than Omicron.”
Before the announcement, Johnson was forced to postpone a Covid-19 cabinet meeting after wrangling between the Treasury and Department of Health over the cost of measures to safeguard against future outbreaks.
Sajid Javid, health secretary, argued that he needed more money than allocated to the NHS budget to monitor future developments of the virus, and to allow a response to be scaled up quickly if necessary.
After days of haggling, that continued during Monday morning, Javid agreed that he would absorb about £1bn of costs from within the NHS budget by “reprioritising” spending.
Under Javid’s plan, the Office for National Statistics Covid surveillance operation will continue, along with genomic sequencing to spot for new mutations.
Rishi Sunak, chancellor of the exchequer, successfully argued that this could be funded from within the NHS spending review settlement, agreed last year, which from April will also include £12bn extra from a rise in national insurance contributions.
Johnson also announced an updated biosecurity strategy which would protect the UK from threats including “accidental laboratory leaks” and biological attacks by state and non-state actors.
But he said the existing testing programme, which cost £15.7bn in this financial year, had to be scaled back, while creating the surveillance mechanisms needed to “ramp up testing” in future, if needed.
To cheers from Conservative MPs, many of whom have bridled against the use of lockdowns and other state edicts during the pandemic, Johnson added: “We don’t need laws to compel people to be considerate of others.”
Sir Keir Starmer, Labour leader, called on the government to publish data supporting the ending of the legal requirement to self-isolate, including its impact on the clinically vulnerable.
He also called for free testing to continue beyond April 1. “Free tests can’t continue forever, but if you’re 2-1 up with 10 minutes to go, you don’t sub off one of your best defenders.”
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, made clear that she would take a more cautious approach than Johnson.
“I do not agree with him about the ending of self-isolation for positive cases at this point, because that is effectively saying to people: ‘If you have got Covid, it is OK to go and potentially infect others in workplaces and settings elsewhere’,” she said.
The Scottish government will announce its new coronavirus strategy on Tuesday.
Health leaders also expressed concern about the relaxation of restrictions, which Pat Cullen, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said “feels unplanned and ill-informed”.
The prime minister had the opportunity to reassure healthcare staff in England that they still had access to tests “and they will be alarmed today by this omission”, she said.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, added: “We urge the government to reconsider its plan, with dedicated funding for continued access to Covid tests for all NHS workers in patient-facing roles.”
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said “it would be very premature to see [the strategy] as signalling a permanent victory over Covid-19”.
Earlier on Monday, the UK government announced that over-75s, care home residents and immunosuppressed individuals aged 12 and over across the UK would be offered another dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in the spring.
The health secretary said: “We know immunity to Covid-19 begins to wane over time. That’s why we’re offering a spring booster to those people at higher risk of serious Covid-19 to make sure they maintain a high level of protection.”
Additional reporting by Mure Dickie