Coming up on the Pest and podcast, why has a test and trace system that the Prime Minister said would be world class?

The deteriorated to something that looks like a world farce.

Are we heading for a no deal Brexit and one of the prospects for a vaccine sometime soon?

Well I'll be talking about all this and more with the housing minister of Robert Jenrick.

I'll also be asking him when the North East will be going into lockdown and what that lockdown would involve.

There'll also be a conversation with Len McCluskey on how to stem rising unemployment.

And we've got that vaccine expert Richard Hatchett on when, if ever, we will get the vaccine that we've all been

looking forward to and counting on. And on all of this, we've got a couple of absolutely brilliant

experts. We've got Yvette Cooper from Labor, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee and

Gavin Barwell, who you'll remember was Chief of Staff to Theresa May and almost pulled off a Brexit deal.

Delighted to be joined by Gavin Barwell and Yvette Cooper. Can I just tell you with somebody recently at the heart of government, does it surprise you that a system that was billed as going to be well,

was promised actually by the primary, so it would be world class by now, is, well,

creaking, cranking, seems hobbled.

So I think the first thing to say is that the government has made progress in increasing volumes

and tests from the low level they were in February and March.

That's good news, but the problem that we're now experiencing does surprise me and is very worrying because

this is important on so many fronts. It's important if we want to keep our children at school,

that people can get quick results, it's important if we want to keep our economy going,

and it's vitally important to get that really granular local data that is going to allow

ministers like Robert to take decisions about local lockdowns and avoiding what we all agree

we've got to do over the next few months avoiding a national lockdown. So I think, look,

there is some positive context in terms of the overall numbers and our position relative to other

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