Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak u-turn on self-isolation after row over Test and Trace contact

However with half a million people currently forced to self-isolate for 10 days after similar NHS Test and Trace pings, and businesses complaining of staff shortages, the pair backed down in the face of a furious backlash.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the Government was in “chaos” at a time when in needed to maintain public confidence.

He said: “Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak have been busted yet again for thinking the rules that we are all following don’t apply to them.

“The way the Prime Minister conducts himself creates chaos, makes for bad government and has deadly consequences for the British public.”

His deputy Angel Rayner said the original proposal “takes the p***”, while Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey called it “one rule for them and another rule for everyone else”.

Green party co-leader Jonathan Bartley added: “Anger doesn’t begin to cover it.”

Mr Johnson will now stay at his official country residence of Chequers, rather than return to Downing Street as first intended, an inauspicious start to the end of all social distancing measures tomorrow in England.

The row followed the Government trying to defend Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak not following the same self-isolation rules as the rest of the country.

Mr Javid, whose predecessor Matt Hancock also caught Covid in the job, met Mr Johnson at Downing Street on Friday, then had himself tested after feeling groggy that evening.

His diagnosis was confirmed by a positive PCR ttest on Saturday, and NHS Test and Trace then contacted Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak as two of his close contacts.

However Downing Street said they would not self-isolate but take part in a pilot offering rapid workplace testing as an alternative for some parts of the public sector and business.

Transport for London, Heathrow and Border Force are part of the scheme, as are Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, with an asymptomatic testing centre in Whitehall.

However Transport for London, which had to shut  the Underground's Metropolitan Line on Saturday because so many of its staff had been pinged, said it had yet to take part in practice.

On Sky News, Tory MP Damian Green said Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak talking daily tests under the pilot rather than self-isolating was “actually quite sensible”.

On the BBC One’s Andrew Marr show, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said the pilot was “not just for politicians”, but other public sector organisations as well.

He said: “It ensures that the PM and the Chancellor can conduct the most essential business but at other times of the day they won’t be mixing with people outside their own households.”

Asked about doctors and other people doing essential work had to self-isolate unlike the PM, Mr Jenrick said the pilot could be extended to others if it proved successful, and stressed self-isolation was due to end for the double-jabbed from August 16.

But Labour shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth Shadow said many people across the UK would be dismayed by the “special, exclusive rule” and the appearance of double-standards could hamper efforts by ministers to give public health advice.

He told Sky News: “There will be parents across the country who have struggled this year when their children have been sent home because they were in a bubble and had to self-isolate. There will be workers across the country that have to isolate because they’ve been pinged, including in public services, including the NHS.

“For many of them, waking up this morning to hear that there is a special rule, an exclusive rule, for Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, they will be saying that this looks like one rule for them and something else for the rest of us.”

He added: “Nobody understands how you can get access to this special treatment or VIP lane where you don’t have to isolate yourself. I do think a lot of people are going to be looking at this and thinking ‘what on earth is going on?’”

Kate Nicholls, the CEO of UK Hospitality, said: “It cannot be right that only those on pilot projects are exempt from the need to self-isolate. We need a workable and pragmatic self-isolation policy which keeps people safe but also keeps the economy moving.”

Downing Street would also have been spooked by the reaction of Sun editor Victoria Newton on the Marr show, who said not that not self-isolating was “outrageous”.

She said: “It’s just ‘do as we say, not as we do’, and that never works for a politician, whether they’re from the Left or the Right. This Government should know better.”

That indicated Mr Johnson was in line for an almighty kicking from the tabloids if he tried to follow through on his initial plan.

Tony Blair’s former spindoctor Alastair Campbell said the “Johnson-Sunak test pilot scandal” had the potential to “cut through” with the public and damage the Government. 

However Mr Blair himself said the PM ought to be able to skip self-isolation, but that it should be universal.

Speaking to Radio 4 before the Downing Street u-turn, he said the current system was "not rational" and he understood why people were deleting the NHS Covid app from their mobile phones.

He said: “I don’t want the Prime Minister of the country to be in isolation at the moment, I need him at his desk doing his job.

“He’s double vaccinated, he’s actually had Covid, he’s testing and presumably the tests are coming back negative. The point is to do this for everyone.”

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said: “How are we meant to get this virus under control when those who set the guidelines don’t even follow them?

READ MORE: Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak will not be self-isolating despite being contacted by NHS Test and Trace

“My members at Nissan and thousands more across manufacturing, health, hospitality, retail and public transport live in fear of being pinged by the app as it means that they can’t work because they have to isolate. Businesses, already reeling from Covid disruption, face more insecurity, downtime, closures and lost services.

“Working people worried for their futures certainly won’t be impressed to discover there’s one rule for the PM and the Cabinet, but a different set of more punishing rules for them.”

Mr Bartley tweeted: “Hundreds of thousands of young people, including my children, had their education and lives repeatedly turned upside down again and again after dutifully and responsibly isolating. And now this. Anger doesn’t begin to cover it.” 

Sir Ed Davey said: “It is one rule for them and another rule for everyone else.

“How about the school teachers, transport workers and health workers getting a chance to be part of this test pilot or is it only for the privileged few? People have stuck to the rules and done the right thing, Boris Johnson is taking them for granted.”

By mid-morning, Mr Sunak announced he would quarantine after all, admitting that public perception was behind his decision.

He tweeted: “Whilst the test and trace pilot is fairly restrictive, allowing only essential government business, I recognise that even the sense that the rules aren’t the same for everyone is wrong. To that end I’ll be self-isolating as normal and not taking part in the pilot.”

Downing Street also dramatically changed tack.

A spokesman said: “The prime minister has been contacted by NHS test and trace to say he is a contact of someone with Covid. He was at Chequers when contacted by test and trace and will remain there to isolate. He will not be taking part in the testing pilot.

“He will continue to conduct meetings with ministers remotely. The chancellor has also been contacted and will also isolate as required and will not be taking part in the pilot.”

SNP CONDEMNS JOHNSON'S CHAOTIC COVID U-TURN

The SNP has branded Boris Johnson’s chaotic u-turn over Covid self isolation a “monumental and dangerous failure of leadership”.

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said: “Blundering Boris Johnson is guilty of yet another monumental and dangerous failure of leadership - a hallmark of his chaotic and corrupt Government.

“He clearly labours under the mistaken belief that necessary rules which apply to everyone else do not affect him and his cabal of entitled chums like chancellor Rishi Sunak.

"We know from the previous Dominic Cummings catastrophe at Barnard Castle that chaotic Covid messaging from Government results in a public breakdown in trust and understanding that, in turn, can ultimately cost lives.

“Johnson’s u-turn to self-isolate only happened because of the predictable and justified public backlash. Yet again, he is guilty of breath-taking arrogance and a cavalier disregard of public health.

“Meanwhile, as Covid infection rates continue to spiral, his decision to press ahead this week with the full removal of almost every Covid restriction increasingly looks reckless.”