Keir Starmer warns UK's test-and-trace system on 'verge of collapse'

Ministers concede lack of laboratory capacity for tests could take fortnight to resolve

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Keir Starmer has warned the coronavirus test-and-trace system is on the verge of collapse", as ministers conceded that a lack of laboratory capacity which has prevented many people getting a test could take a fortnight to be resolved.

The hold-up in processing Covid results, which has seen some people asked to travel from London to Scotland for tests, prompted alarm from council leaders who said it could be calamitous in the period that pupils and students return to education.