Boris Johnson is facing calls to expand a Covid support scheme, as people struggling to make ends meet are flouting orders to self-isolate.

Speaking at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir Starmer claimed three out of 10 people who should be quarantining aren’t doing so.

He added: ‘That matters to millions of people and it matters if we’re going to get the virus under control.’

The Labour leader argued that far too many people are being rejected for the £500 Test and Trace Support Payment scheme and called on the PM to ‘fix this’.

He pointed to comments by Test and Trace chair Baroness Dido Harding that people are ‘scared’ to get tested because they are afraid of losing out on their wages.

Sir Keir added: ‘The Government’s biosecurity centre concluded that unmet financial need was why some lower income areas are seeing stubbornly high infection rates.

‘So why, after all the billions the Government has thrown around, is it still people in low-paid jobs who are at the bottom of this Government’s priorities?’

Earlier this month, Baroness Harding told MPs that around 20,000 people per day are not isolating when they should be, most of whom are worried about a lack of financial support.

Data obtained by the TUC union has found that seven in 10 applications for the Test and Trace support payment were turned down.

The scheme is being administered by local authorities, but they are given out based on a strict criteria.

Councils have the power to make ‘discretionary payments’ to those who fall outside of the parameters, but the TUC say demand for these payments is ‘significantly outstripping the available funding.’

However the Dpartment of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the figures ‘paint an incomplete picture’ and account for only 171 of the 314 local authorities who run the scheme.

Responding to Sir Keir’s criticism, the PM responded: ‘Actually, I think most people looking at what we’ve done throughout this pandemic, looking at the support, the £280billion package of support, can see that it is the poorest and the neediest in society, those who are on the lowest income who have been the top of the Government’s priorities and that is quite right.’

Hitting back, Sir Keir said: ‘Here’s the difference – if you need £500 to isolate, you’re out of luck. If you’ve got the Health Secretary’s Whatsapp, you get a million-pound contract.’

The Leader of the Opposition was referring to a High Court ruling which found that Matt Hancock acted unlawfully over billions of pounds worth of coronavirus-related contracts.

The judge ruled that the Government unlawfully failed to publish details of the contracts so the public can scrutinise it within the set time limit.

There was particular outcry about one contract going to the company run by Hancock’s acquaintance and old pub landlord Alex Bourne.

Mr Bourne reportedly offered to help over Whatsapp before being asked to make vials for Covid-19 tests. That contract has not found to be unlawful.

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