PM dodges questions over whether Covid tests will remain free

The prime minister has dodged questions over whether Covid testing kits will remain free at, with regulations set to be rolled back at the end of February

“I think the situation with Covid is that numbers remain high but it’s clear that omicron is much less dangerous than delta, you can see the numbers going down in hospitals and the numbers in ICU have been nothing like what we saw with delta,” Boris Johnson told Sky News on a visit to Rosyth in Scotland this morning.

“Together we’ve been taking roughly the same strategy. I know people try to make a lot of small differences and I understand that completely but the UK has been working very, very effectively together.

“On testing, which is important, we’ll make sure we continue to work with our colleagues in Scotland. The similarities in our approach vastly outweigh the differences.”

The prime minister went on to press how “dangerous” the ongoing amassing of Russian troops at the Ukrainian border was, and how the “drip feed” of Russian oil must be decoupled with by the UK and its European allies.

He also refused to apologise for his comments linking Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer with the failure to prosecute notorious sex offender Jimmy Savile.

Last month Johnson accused the Labour leader of spending more “time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile”.

Sir Keir served as the director of public prosecutions for the Crown Prosecution Service from 2008 to 2013.