My Apple Pay is not working in the UK

I have a number of cards loaded on my iPhone 11 successfully. This includes Mastercard and Visa; they are all there with apparently no problems. The OS is up to date (16.6).

When in any store it seems that my phone does not connect with the terminal when presented for payment. This happens with any of the cards; I have tried the phone with the screen to the card reader and the back to the card reader. The phone has an Apple case and I have even taken it out of the case. All to no avail. The card readers in the stores work immediately when I present my physical bank card.

As an aside I have trouble swapping things with most people on Airdrop so I don't know if there is any strange connection there.

From recollection Apple Pay has never worked on the phone but its now started to annoy me hence the question to the Community! Any help appreciated.