£5,000 FINE FOR HOLIDAYS ABROAD

With France set to go on travel ‘red list’ and minister warning ALL Europe may follow...

BRITONS face £5,000 fines for going abroad on holiday from Monday.

The threat of penalties for leaving the UK without ‘reasonable excuse’ – such as for work or family matters – will remain in place until the end of June.

Yesterday it emerged that France is likely to be added by the end of the week to a ‘red list’ of countries requiring hotel quarantine.

Health officials are increasingly concerned by a surge in cases of the South African Covid variant across the Channel. A minister even suggested the whole of the continent could be put on the red list because of botched vaccine rollouts.

That might mean the need to quarantine after foreign trips would stay in place until at least August.

A ‘traffic light’ system is under consideration, allowing restriction-free travel to ‘green’ countries. However,

sources stressed no decisions had been taken.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is leading a taskforce that will report by April 12 on how and when the ban on non- essential travel can be lifted. Under Boris Johnson’s official roadmap it can be no earlier than May 17.

As daily coronavirus deaths fell to 17 – the lowest number since September 28; n A study found that Covid fatalities had robbed families of a total of 1.5million years with loved ones; n Boris Johnson warned that a third wave of infections in France, Italy and elsewhere could ‘ wash up on our shores’; n EU leaders were last night split over whether to ban vaccine exports to Britain; n A large US trial found the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and effective, providing 100 per cent protection against severe illness from Covid.

Care minister Helen Whately yesterday repeated official warnings that booking a trip abroad would be ‘premature’.

But top scientists yesterday backed allowing foreign holidays this summer.

Carl Heneghan, a professor of evidence-based medicine at Oxford University, said: ‘ We were allowing people to go on holiday last summer, without any testing programme, and now we have got the vaccination programme and the testbe ing programme. Given that, you have to ask the question, “What will it take if that’s not sufficient?”’

Professor Robert Dingwall, who sits on the Government’s scientific advisory group Nervtag, added: ‘We should have been able to complete the two rounds of vaccinations for the over-50s and clinically vulnerable by the end of April, early May.

‘Add on a couple of weeks for these things to take effect and you wouldn’t really have much of a case for going beyond the end of May [for extending the travel ban].’

However, given the picture in Europe it appears increasingly likely that foreign holidays will delayed until at least June 21, the same day the Government plans to remove all domestic restrictions.

The slow rollout of the vaccination programme in Europe means most countries popular with Britons are unlikely to be declared ‘green’ until late summer. This would make foreign trips impossible for most holidaymakers because of the ten days of quarantine.

Putting France on the red list will mean returning British nationals are forced to isolate in an approved hotel at their own expense.

Non-British residents will be banned from entering and direct flights will also cease. Exemptions would be made for hauliers to protect trade.

Health minister Lord Bethell of Romford yesterday told peers: ‘The possibility is that we will have to red list all of our European neighbours. But that would be done with huge regret because we are a trading nation.’

Thirty-five countries are on the red list, including the whole of South America, southern Africa, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Portugal was on the list but was removed last week.

The ban on foreign holidays was implicit because leisure trips abroad were not one of the reasons allowed for leaving the house.

But, from Monday it will be officially placed in law at the same time as the ‘ stay at home’ message is lifted.

The foreign travel ban does not apply to those going to the common travel area of the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and the Republic of Ireland.

Exemptions apply to those needing to travel for work, study, for legal obligations or to vote. Births, weddings and visiting a dying relative or close friend also qualify.