South Cumbria MP urges Health Secretary to intervene after constituents advised to travel to Edinburgh Airport for COVID-19 tests

Local MP Tim Farron has written to the Health Secretary urging him to intervene after local residents have been advised to travel as far away as Edinburgh Airport to be tested for COVID-19.

It comes after leaked Government documents revealed that the UK faces a backlog of 185,000 COVID-19 tests.

Throughout the pandemic, several laboratories have been in touch with Tim offering their capacity to help but each request has been ignored by the Department for Health.

Tim said: "In the absence of a vaccine, the only way we get out of this crisis is through mass testing.

"However, judging by the dozens of emails and phone calls my office has received from anxious constituents who have been all round the houses trying to get tested, it appears the system is on the brink of collapse.

"People are trying to do the right thing but are being completely failed by the system, at a huge expense to their mental wellbeing.

"Local people being advised to travel from South Cumbria to Edinburgh Airport for a coronavirus test is quite frankly a joke.

"The Government need to get a grip right now otherwise all of our efforts and sacrifices to defeat the virus could well be in vain."