GIVE US OUR SUMMER HOLS
40 MPs tell PM to ease travel curbs or put recovery at risk
MILLIONS of sun- starved Britons must be allowed to enjoy a summer holiday abroad, MPs told Boris Johnson last night.
Forty MPs wrote to the Prime Minister to warn that the country would not fully recover from the ‘devastating’ pandemic without a thriving tourism, travel and aviation industry.
Holidays abroad are banned until at least May 17, but with Europe in the grip of a third wave of coronavirus infections, there are fears ministers will extend that until August.
The Government’s global travel taskforce is due to provide its recommendations in the coming days before Mr Johnson says more about the issue next week. However, even then he may not give a definitive date for when international travel can restart.
The group of cross-party MPs told the PM that foreign holidays were essential not just for holidaymakers, but for the country’s economic rebound. They wrote to Mr Johnson to stress that it was ‘paramount that the restart of international travel provides the opportunity for businesses in the aviation, travel and tourism industries to begin their long journey back to recovery’.
‘As an island nation, we cannot fully recover from the devastating impacts of this pandemic without a thriving aviation and travel sector,’ the MPs
‘Devastating impacts of this pandemic’
‘Reuniting family members’
warned. ‘ As such, we urge you to introduce measures that allow the safe restart of international travel from May 17.’
The letter was signed by 40 MPs and six peers, including former Cabinet minister Karen Bradley, ex-aviation minister Paul Maynard and transport committee chairman Huw Merriman. The signatories called for the Government to adopt ‘a risk-based approach’ that ‘allows for travel to low-risk nations with minimal or no restrictions’, while retaining tougher measures for destinations where there are concerns about the spread of new variants.
They want rapid testing to be introduced for international arrivals and asked that quarantine periods be kept ‘as low as possible’. ‘We also urge the Government to ensure that the cost of testing is kept under review to ensure that it does not act as a disincentive to travel,’ they added.
Henry Smith, the Tory chairman of the all-party Future of Aviation Group, said: ‘We cannot begin our long road to recovery if we keep our skies shut throughout the summer months.’
The MP, whose Crawley constituency includes Gatwick airport, added: ‘The pandemic has been disastrous for our aviation, travel and tourism sectors and the consequences of a failure to build on the progress of our vaccination programme and back a riskbased reopening of international travel will be devastating, not only to the businesses involved, but their employees, their communities and the UK economy as a whole.’
Last night, Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said: ‘The UK is ahead in the vaccine race, and when coupled with the scientific advances in testing, ministers now have the tools they need to reopen travel safely on May 17.
‘This is not just about a holiday in the sun, it’s about reuniting people with family members that they haven’t seen in over a year, and unlocking valuable trading routes like the United States which for too long have been shut.’
Mr Johnson said last night: ‘The most important thing that we’ve got to do right now as we continue to immunise great numbers of people in this country is to protect our country insofar as we can... do as much as we can to prevent the virus coming back in from abroad and new variants coming in from abroad.
‘So, the rules about what you can do, what people can do, to see their families abroad will be governed entirely by the rules that cover travel abroad and people coming from abroad. At the moment, as you know, it’s still forbidden to travel. We’ll be saying a bit more on April 5 about what the global travel taskforce has come up with.
‘There are lots of countries that are on a red list, 35 countries are on a red list, where we have very stringent measures in place for them, for people arriving from those countries.’
Tourism minister Nigel Huddleston insisted ‘caution [will be] the name of the game’ when it comes to summer holidays abroad. ‘Remember, you can have a holiday in the UK as well and I encourage people to do that and plan for that as well,’ he told Sky News. But Health
Secretary Matt Hancock later said the door ‘is not shut’ on foreign holidays this summer.
Mr Hancock said he had a ‘lot of sympathy’ for the travel industry, adding: ‘We all want to get that going as soon as possible, but the most important thing is to protect the recovery here at home so people can see their loved ones and don’t have to go into lockdown again.
‘We may get to a position where if you’ve had your jab, then other countries will say: “You’ve got to have the jab to come in.” And so we’ll make sure everybody can do that.’
Asked if there will be foreign holidays this summer, he said: ‘There may well be, I wouldn’t rule that out.’
ONS figures show aviation has been the worst-hit service industry, with trade down 93 per cent in the past year.
PETER Phillips stayed the night at the home of a school friend of his sister’s in Scotland during a 460-mile trip from his home because he could not find a hotel, it was claimed yesterday.
The Queen’s grandson is said to have visited Lindsay Wallace in Aberdeenshire twice in seven months – but his spokesman insisted she was just a ‘family friend’.
Police quizzed Mr Phillips on the second occasion last week over a potential breach of lockdown rules but found none.
The royal, 43, has claimed he was staying overnight on business for his company XF Medical, which was set up last June to provide rapid coronavirus antibody tests.
Mrs Wallace, 40, is a close friend of Mr Phillips’s sister Zara, 39, after they attended the £ 40,000- a- year Gordonstoun school together. She was among the guests at her wedding to rugby star Mike Tindall in 2011.
She is also a ‘long-standing’ family friend of Mr Phillips, who was a few years above her at the same school, according to his spokesman. Both split from their partners last year and were reported to have grown closer at a recent school reunion.
Sources close to Mr Phillips yesterday denied rumours the friends were dating, Hello! magazine reported. He stayed the night at her home in the village of St Cyrus as there were no hotels in the area open due to lockdown, according to the magazine.
But another source told The Sun: ‘Peter is besotted with her. They have known each other for quite some time. They have been keeping things under wraps. Only the inner circle knew about this friendship.’
Mr Phillips confirmed in February last year that he had separated from the mother of his two children Autumn Phillips, 41.
He has twice driven 460 miles from his mother Princess Anne’s stately home Gatcombe Park in Gloucestershire, where he lives, to see Mrs Wallace.
Mrs Wallace is understood to have split from her husband Andrew last year. They wed in 2010 and have two young children.
She is said to be from a wealthy family who ‘pride themselves on being pillars of their local community’.
Last August, both families met for ‘a day out at the beach’ in St Cyrus while Mr Phillips was staying with his two children 50 miles away at Balmoral. At the time, the Scottish government was warning about virus flare-ups – with Aberdeen, just 30 miles up the coast, put into lockdown. A spokesman for Mr Phillips said it was ‘a personal family trip’ and all regulations and social distancing had been adhered to.
On the second visit last week, however, police were called to Mrs Wallace’s detached house after Mr Phillips’s 4x4 Range Rover was spotted outside. Police Scotland said they had received a report of a potential breach of lockdown and went to the property on Friday. No breaches were found.
At the time, travelling for work was permitted only if the work could not be done from home. Scotland remains in lockdown, with travel permitted only if essential, and hotels and B&Bs closed to tourists.
People can stay overnight in someone else’s home only if they have formed an ‘extended support bubble’ with them.
A spokesman for Mr Phillips said he had travelled to Scotland ‘on business in connection with his work for XF Medical’. They added: ‘We do not comment on details or circumstances of Mr Phillips’s accommodation when travelling. Neither do we comment on XF Medical business or information which is commercially sensitive.
‘Mrs Lindsay Wallace is a family friend of Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall. They all went to school together Gordonstoun.’ Mrs Wallace declined to comment. Mr Phillips is one of three founding directors of XF Medical, and is described as an ‘entrepreneur with a background in sports and entertainment’ on its website.
Last year it was revealed how he used his royal connections to get a role selling milk in China. In TV adverts for a state-owned dairy, in front of a stately home he talks of growing up on Jersey milk from the herd at Windsor.