TAXPAYER cash is enabling pandemic profiteering, Labour has warned, after the failed Covid-19 test-and-trace outsourcing giant Serco announced another year of bumper profits.

On Monday, the firm confirmed its underlying trading profit for 2021 would be £15 million higher than previously thought, at about £200m. 

Its announcement came as Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a four-week delay to the easing of lockdown restrictions in England with the delta coronavirus variant, first identified in India, running amok. 

The government tasked Serco with finding the contacts of those with the virus and asking them to self-isolate in May last year, but it has repeatedly failed to deliver, with local public health teams finding far more. 

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner slammed the Tories for lining the pockets of big outsourcing firms despite “failure after failure.

“The public will be able to compare the failed test and trace — run for private profit — with the vaccine rollout — run by our NHS in the public interest — and ask why Serco is being rewarded for failure.

“Labour will insource our public services so they are run for the public, not private profit.”