Overview

• Baroness Dido Harding recalled that from June 2020 former Chancellor Rishi Sunak repeatedly dismissed bids to boost the £500 self-isolation support package.
• She noted the UK spent proportionally less on isolation aid than other developed nations, leaving low-income individuals with insufficient financial backing.
• Harding explained that fear of lost wages deterred people from coming forward for testing, undermining the effectiveness of Test and Trace.
• She argued reallocating more NHS Test and Trace funding to isolation payments could have cut both infection rates and the pandemic death toll.
• Harding also criticised a requirement for NHS Test and Trace to route all communications through Downing Street, saying it hampered direct public engagement and trust.