Matt Hancock vows to find out cause of Telford test centre 'glitch'

He gave the pledge after Telford MP Lucy Allan told a House of Commons debate that people had been sent to the site near Ironbridge from hundreds of miles across the country on Tuesday evening.

The problems led to reports of congesting in roads leading to the the site off Jiggers Bank after staff turned away people arriving for booked tests away and police were called to the area.

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Ms Allan told the Commons: "On Tuesday evening hundreds of cars descended from across the country on Telford at its testing site as directed by the booking system. Tests quickly ran out, roads were blocked, people who had travelled from as far away from Cornwall, Stockport and London were turned away.

"And my constituents were no longer able to access tests in the area and they in turn were sent elsewhere.

"What assurances can my Right Honourable friend give that the error in the booking system which directed so many people to come to Telford has now been corrected and does he agree that people should not be criss-crossing the country and travelling for many hours to secure a test?"

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Mr Hancock replied: "We have built this system at great pace. I did not know about this example in Telford although I had heard of people telling me that a lot of people being directed there in this instance. In fact I had a meeting on the problem of people being directed too far only on Tuesday evening.

"The broad problem is something that we are absolutely looking at and I will go and take away that particular example and find out exactly what glitch caused it."

Telford & Wrekin Council has now written to Mr Hancock calling for the authority to be given funding to operate its own test and trace system.

Among those to criticise the Covid-19 testing process was broadcaster and journalist Piers Morgan who described the situation as “appalling” after a father with two unwell children travelled for more than two hours to the test centre – only to be told it had run out of test kits.

Steve Hyndside, who had driven from Mid Wales, said the system was "utterly shambolic".