diff --git a/lib/iris/tests/__init__.py b/lib/iris/tests/__init__.py
index 8c64dc15b1..710a3fbac6 100644
--- a/lib/iris/tests/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/iris/tests/__init__.py
@@ -1196,6 +1196,12 @@ class MyPlotTests(test.GraphicsTest):
     'Test(s) require "python-stratify", which is not available.')
 
 
+SKIP_2D_TESTS = True
+skip_2d = unittest.skipIf(
+    SKIP_2D_TESTS,
+    'Test(s) broken by WIP on 2d coords support -- temporarily disabled.')
+
+
 def no_warnings(func):
     """
     Provides a decorator to ensure that there are no warnings raised