HOLIDAY AIR BRIDGE FARCE
Quarantine free travel list may NOT now include France and Greece
AIR bridges allowing tourists to travel to France and Greece were in doubt last night after ministers decided against lifting quarantine measures for countries placing restrictions on UK travellers.
On a day of shambles, the list of nations to which travel will be allowed from Monday without Britons having to quarantine here on their return was repeatedly chopped and changed.
The list is expected to cover dozens of destinations when it is finally published today. But both France and Greece had fallen off it last night despite previous pledges they would be included.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also refused to sign up to the plan, meaning the lifting of quarantine measures will apply only to English ports and airports.
The decision to press ahead without the rest of the UK raises the prospect that Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon could follow through on her threat to impose quarantines on people arriving from England.
And last night it emerged that just three people have been fined since the controversial quarantine policy – blamed for crippling hopes of a tourism revival – was brought in last month.
Ministers agreed a new ‘traffic light’ system last week that would pave the way for the creation of so- called ‘international travel corridors’ designed to allow travellers to visit certain countries this summer without the need to quarantine at either end.
Last Friday, government sources said this would cover Mediterranean destinations including Italy, France, Spain and Greece, leading to a rush of bookings. But the plan hit trouble earlier in the week when Greece said it was extending its flight ban on the UK because of high infection levels here.
And last night ministers decided it would be politically untenable to lift quarantines against countries that are still imposing travel restrictions on UK tourists.
The decision means neither France nor Greece are on the initial list, although No 10 sources insisted that a deal with Paris could be clinched within days.
Andrea Bertoli, of booking website Lastminute.com, urged ministers to ‘ get their act together’, adding: ‘The signals and the decisions taken so far have been a bit strange to me. This is not helping the travel industry to recover.’
Ministers had originally planned to negotiate bilateral ‘air bridges’ with a limited number of countries. Under pressure from the travel industry and fears of legal action, this was then widened to a larger group of almost 80 destinations.
At one point yesterday, ministers were ready to lift quarantine against countries deemed safe even if they were imposing quarantine on UK arrivals.
But amid frantic wrangling, they decided this would be politically untenable. A final list is due to be published today, just 72 hours before the new policy comes into force on Monday.
The chaos sparked a blame game between London and Edinburgh, with Commons leader Jacob ReesMogg accusing Miss Sturgeon of acting like Donald Trump wanting to ‘build a wall’ after she refused to rule out 14-day quarantines on arrivals from England.
Ministers have spent days trying to agree a UK-wide approach. Privately they accuse Miss Sturgeon of playing politics with the issue in order to fuel nationalist sentiment north of the border.
But a Scottish government source said ministers at Westminster had changed the policy three times in 24 hours, making it impossible for them to sign up.
‘Not helping the industry recover’
Scotland’s justice secretary Humza Yousaf said the number of countries proposed by the UK Government had jumped from 42 to 73 during Wednesday.
He said the original list had 15 countries with a ‘green’ risk rating and 27 with an ‘amber’ rating – but 30 minutes before the 6pm meeting they were shown a list of 40 green and 33 amber nations.
The row came as travel agents started abandoning plans to sell holidays this summer due to the uncertainty around air bridges.
Lee Hunt, 42, owner of Deben Travel in Woodbridge, Suffolk, said: ‘If customers are paying, we need to guarantee them they are getting everything they pay for. We can’t do this at the moment.’
Chris Scoble, 54, of Go Scoble in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, said: ‘I think we have been put right at the back of the queue, despite being such a large part of this country’s economy.’
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