Downing Street ‘wants Holly Willoughby and Lorraine Kelly’ to front home Covid test campaign

Downing Street is wooing This Morning star Holly Willoughby and fellow daytime star Lorraine Kelly to become the glamorous faces of a campaign to promote mass Covid home testing, it was claimed today.

Last week it was revealed Boris Johnson is planning a blitz that will send home-swabbing kits to millions of homes and businesses when lockdown is eased.

NHS Test and Trace will dish out more than 400,000 lateral flow tests every day to get to ‘a new normal’, it was claimed.

No10 will also unveil a new slogan — ‘Are you ready? Get testing. Go’ — ahead of the reopening of schools next month, encouraging people to get swabbed.

Now Politico reports that Ms Willoughby, 40, and 61-year-old Scot Ms Kelly, are wanted to act as the faces of a public information campaign, because of their high-profile television roles.

Politico reports that Ms Willoughby, 40, (above) and 61-year-old Scot Ms Kelly (below), are wanted to act as the faces of a public information campaign, because of their high-profile television roles.

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‘Are you ready? Get testing. Go’ will reportedly be a new campaign launched ahead of the reopening of schools next month

Ministers are hoping well-known faces will front it to help persuade people to get a Covid-19 test even if they do not have symptoms. Pictured: An advert for a testing kit in Manchester

The testing surge of delivering 400,000 kits a day – three million a week – will be spearheaded by NHS Test and Trace and the Royal Mail, the Times reports.

Officials expect schools to return on March 8, followed by shops and universities late in April, as well as the hospitality sector at the start of May.

Pupils and their parents could be getting tests twice a week by the time they return and it is understood the same will apply to teachers.

It is said there will be a further surge in testing between April and May as lateral flow tests are rolled out to businesses to help people return to work.

One minister said: ‘The vaccination programme is going better than we could have hoped, but testing is the key to getting the economy going again.’

Lateral flow tests are already available to firms open during lockdown with more than 50 workers.