Facts

Grant Shapps, on BBC Radio 4 Today, said: “The UK, I think I’m right in saying, other than China and Italy, is carrying out more tests than any other country in the world...”

According to a compilation of all the latest data available at the time, the UK was not ranked third for Covid-19 testing. It was, in fact, ranked fifth, behind China, South Korea, Italy and Russia.

For a fuller analysis, see Full Fact.

Verdict

Grant Shapps’s actual statement was misleading, although he gave himself an escape from the suggestion that he knew this.