A Cabinet minister today admitted the government 'probably won't' hit its target to carry out 100,000 coronavirus tests per day.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock had repeatedly insisted he would meet the target by today, despite the actual number of tests being 52,429 on Tuesday.

Finally today Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, accepted the target would probably not be hit on time.

He told Sky News: "We'll have the results I think tomorrow.

"Even if we don't hit it, and it's probable that we won't, we will in the next few days hit that target. We're up to 52,000 people being tested, the capacity is rising.

"I think it was right to set an ambitious target. And you know, sometimes even if you don't hit the target on the due date the direction of travel is the most important thing.

"I believe we're going to get there and then move beyond it, because we need more."

Mr Buckland insisted there was a "sense of purpose" that has sent numbers up dramatically in recent days - with eligibility being widened hugely and thousands of home testing kits per day becoming available.

But it is still a blow after Mr Hancock and other government ministers insisted the target would be met.

Capacity is almost up to 100,000 but the target is for the actual number of tests carried out.

There is also no sign of how the UK will meet an ambition Boris Johnson raised of 250,000 tests per day. Mr Johnson did not ever say when that would be reached.

Boris Johnson will lead the daily press conference at 5pm for the first time in a month - but is not expected to lay out a plan for easing the lockdown.

The government must pass its five tests for easing lockdown, one of which is to avoid a second peak of the virus "that overwhelms the NHS".

Ministers last night said that despite causing more than 25,000 deaths, the first peak did not overwhelm the NHS - so it is not clear what size of second peak they would accept.

Mr Buckland said it would be "premature" for Mr Johnson to set out "specific detail" of how lockdown will ease.

He added: "We’ve got a fist fight with this virus, we’ve got to keep fighting it and avoid that appalling second spike."

It is not the first time the government has missed its testing target.

A government statement on March 18 said testing for coronavirus would be ramped up to 25,000 a day, a level "expected to be ready within four weeks".

But at no point did the number top 20,000 before April 16.

The failure prompted recriminations, with Downing Street saying it was "clear" the NHS and Public Health England should fill capacity - but insiders blaming bureaucracy and poor planning for labs on the go-slow.

Since then, eligibility has been expanded to all NHS and social care patients or staff with or without symptoms.

Any 'key worker' including teachers and delivery drivers, anyone else who needs to leave home for work like constructive workers, and anyone over 65 can also all be tested if they have symptoms.

Most tests are carried out at drive-through testing sites, with the Army also running a handful of mobile sites around the country.

People can also get a home test delivered to their place of residence - though the daily allocation has typically been running out in the first hour or two since these launched a week ago.

On March 25, the Prime Minister claimed the UK would be going "hopefully very soon up to 250,000 per day."

But Boris Johnson didn't say when or how. Questioned afterwards, the government said the ambition remained but there was no set date for it to happen.

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