A “BONKERS” UK coronavirus test booking system has been found sending Londoners to Inverness to get tested.

That represents a ten-hour journey of around 560 miles.

The problems follow on from similar issues last month which saw Scots in Inverclyde told to cross the Irish Sea in order to get tested for Covid-19.

The system appears to be in disarray, and Tottenham MP David Lammy has called on the Government “to quickly explain and fix its approach”.

The Labour MP said: “A constituent has just got in touch upset that the nearest drive-through Covid test a pupil in Tottenham has been offered is in Inverness.

READ MORE: Coronavirus test booking problems send Scots to Northern Ireland

“The result is they are being kept home from school. This is bonkers.”

When The National tried to test Lammy’s claim and book a coronavirus test in Tottenham, London, we were told to attend the testing site at Glasgow Airport, over 400 miles away.

Among Lammy’s replies on Twitter is journalist Hannah Summers, who reported that one of her friends had been told to go to the Isle of Wight for a test, despite living in Surrey, almost 3 hours and a ferry away.

Others say they have been told to go to Dundee from Dorset and London, Aberystwyth from Stoke-on-Trent, St Andrews from Lancashire, and Stranraer from Belfast.

When The National tried to book a test from other locations in the south-west of England and Wales, we were told the service was unavailable in those areas.

The revelations come just days after the UK’s Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, defended the system, insisting that it "works well".

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Hancock said: “At the moment the system works well. Of course there are operational challenges from time to time but it works well.

“And we’re finding a higher and higher proportion of people in the country who have coronavirus and getting them tests so they can be looked after.

“But absolutely, we need to roll out more testing – we have done throughout this crisis and today’s another step in solving some of those problems with the existing technology.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said improvements are being made to the system of allocating regional testing slots to ensure the distance limit does not go beyond 75 miles.

“There is a high demand for tests and to help stop the spread of the virus we are targeting testing capacity at the areas that need it most, including those where there is an outbreak, as well as prioritising at-risk groups," they added.

“We have the capacity to test for coronavirus at an unprecedented scale. We are expanding capacity to 500,000 tests a day by the end of October, increasing the number of testing sites and bringing in new technology to process results faster.”