Boris Johnson clashed with his then health secretary Sajid Javid over the need to fund free Covid tests, declaring himself 'epileptically bored' with the pandemic, a former aide claimed today.

Guto Harri, Mr Johnson's ex director of communications, said the former PM had an 'almighty' row with Mr Javid, who wanted to keep funding the £2billion monthly cost of free lateral flow packs.

Mr Johnson wanted to cut the cost and make all but the most vulnerable pay for them, and eventually got his way.

It is the latest allegation to be made by Mr Harri, a former BBC reporter who was also  Mr Johnson's spin chief when he was mayor of London.

In his 'Unprecedented' posdcast for Global Radio, Mr Harri said: 'There was an almighty row over ending free universal Covid testing. The Saj dug in with a curiously well-rehearsed line about being asked to ''disarm when the enemy is still lurking out there''.

'But testing was costing £2 billion a month, dwarfing the budgets of entire departments. Boris, at the time, declared himself ''epileptically bored with Covid. What people are getting now is not killing them,'' he thought. ''It's a matter of stupendous irrelevance, as long as we have a good pair of eyes in the crow's nest, so we will not miss another iceberg''.

'That essentially was what he was after, just being able to spot the next Covid, if God forbid, it ever happened. He carried the day on that occasion and saved a fortune.'

While Mr Johnson may have won the argument, Mr Javid was later to play a key part in his downfall. His resignation as health secretary last year was the catalyst for many more to step down, ending the PM's scandal-plagued time in power. 

Mr Harri also delved into the times the PM clashed with Rishi Sunak when the latter was his Chancellor.

The former PM was annoyed by 'the lack of oomph' coming from the Treasury to help boost the UK economy, the former aide claimed.

'I think that's when the tension between him and the then Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, who's now Prime Minister, of course, started to ramp up until it got to the point where it was basically untenable,' Mr Harri said.

'''If Rishi is a Thatcherite, let's have it'' he moaned on one occasion without any expectation, sadly, that he'd ever oblige. And on another time, he just blew up, ''f*** this s***'' he said. ''We need to clear out the Treasury. Begin a new as Singapore-on-Thames. The department has basically become a bank manager. The computer just says no.'''