Covid cases are increasing across the UK and Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to address the issue with Covid-related measures in his 2022 Spring Statement later today.
A particularly contentious point has proven to be Covid testing, with free tests set to come to an end on March 31 as part of Boris Johnson's Living with Covid plan.
The scaling back on testing was justified by the Prime Minister as he cited the spending in January, where the costs of funding the free testing in the UK reached £2billion.
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak attends a virtual press conference inside 10 Downing Street in central London, Britain March 3, 2021. Tolga Akmen/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
POOL New
An exclusive GB News poll suggests the UK Government's decision to scale back on free testing is an unpopular one, with 82.8 percent of respondents saying it is the wrong course of action.
The poll, which gathered 2,124 votes, saw only 17.2 percent of respondents backing the Government's decision to end free Covid testing.
The poll was carried out via Twitter on March 18.
Covid-19 infections are continuing to rise across most of the UK, with levels in Scotland hitting another record high, new figures show.
In England and Wales, the virus is now circulating at levels last seen at the start of February, though the trend in Northern Ireland is “uncertain” – with infections likely to have fallen slightly.
Image: GB News
Across the UK as a whole, 3.3 million people were estimated to have coronavirus last week, up from 2.6 million the previous week, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This is still some way below levels seen at the start of the year, when 4.3 million people were likely to have had the virus.
Tune in to Beat the Squeeze: Spring Statement Live from 11am on GB News with Liam Halligan and Gloria De Piero as we bring you Rishi Sunak's statement and all the reaction.