Travel Covid test costs should be capped at ￡40, MPs have told the Government amid a growing Tory backlash against the charges.

       Senior Conservative MPs are calling on Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, to take immediate action to end "rip-off" prices of PCR tests that still average ￡75 per person and risk turning foreign holidays into the "preserve only of the wealthy".

       Writing for The Telegraph, Henry Smith, the Tory chairman of the all-party Future of Aviation group said the Government should cap PCR tests at around ￡40 and scrap them for holidaymakers returning from "low-risk" countries.

       "The rationale for the testing regime looks increasingly dubious. Why not, instead, sample a random group of arrivals rather than require everyone to pay for tests frequently run by shoddy companies failing to deliver tests on time and guilty of making hugely misleading price claims?" he wrote.

       He was backed by Huw Merriman, chairman of the transport select committee, who published a letter he has sent to Mr Javid in which he urged the Government to give "serious consideration" to more "affordable" tests and rethink the need for PCR tests for passengers from green and amber countries.

       "The high cost, poor quality and lack of sequencing from PCR tests needs to be urgently addressed by the Government. They are an unnecessary barrier to affordable international travel," he said.

       Mr Javid has opened the door to a major shake-up of the testing market after his spokesman confirmed that the Competition and Markets Authority will provide him with "actions that can be taken now" to combat "excessive pricing or misleading claims" by firms.

       David Davis, a former Cabinet minister, said it would be "perfectly sensible" to cap test costs to prevent profiteering and axe the 20 per cent VAT charge on PCR tests, which the Government say are necessary to prevent the import of Covid variants.

       "These tests are in the public interest, not the individual interest. There's an entirely logical, morally and ethically justifiable reason for controlling the cost and for the state to make a contribution," Mr Davis said.

       Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the powerful 1922 Conservative backbench committee, said: "Analysis of test results shows fewer positive test results than in the general population. If the Government is mandating so many tests, then it should also require providers to offer them at a reasonable cost."

       Simon Jupp, a Conservative member of the transport committee, said: "Capping the cost of tests must be the way forward to ensure a trip abroad is affordable for everyone. I'm really glad the Health Secretary is demanding a rapid audit of companies providing tests at astronomical prices. The rip-off merchants must be stopped."

       Paul Maynard, a former aviation minister, said: "The market is not functioning well. Families should not have to pay more for tests than they do for flights. The Government needs to get the CMA to respond with some degree of urgency so that families have a better chance of good value options."

       Fewer than one in 50 travellers from red or amber countries are testing positive for Covid, while only one in 20 of those positive tests are being genome sequenced for variants because the presence of the virus in the samples is "vanishingly small" after being suppressed by the vaccine.