Backlash at new curbs on travel
Tory MPs and industry chiefs condemn extra tests for those returning to UK
MINISTERS faced a huge backlash last night over the reintroduction of pre-departure Covid travel tests amid warnings that more than a million people could be stranded abroad.
The travel sector rounded on the Government after it performed a dramatic U-turn to require travellers to be tested before they return to Britain in a move that threatens to wreck the plans of millions this Christmas.
Tory MPs said the rule change will be a hammer blow to the beleaguered airline
‘People will be stranded’
industry, and a leading scientific adviser to the Government said the clampdown would make no ‘material difference’ to the spread of the Omicron variant.
The move, which comes into force tomorrow, means travellers will have to provide a negative test result before they can board a flight home. Those who test positive will have to quarantine abroad at their own expense.
A Cabinet source said some officials and scientists had wanted to go even further by insisting that travellers quarantine at home for up to eight days on their return.
‘If it had been up to the health “Blob”, this would have been even more disruptive,’ the source said.
Industry sources predicted more than a million Britons abroad will be scrambling to get a test in order to avoid being stranded.
Travel expert Paul Charles said: ‘People who are overseas are finding it difficult to obtain tests. It’s a weekend, lots of places are closed and these people had no reason to think about the need to get a test to come home.
‘People will effectively be stranded because they can’t get the tests that are now required.’
he added: ‘Tens of thousands of travel industry jobs are threatened. It is beyond belief that no support measures have been announced. That just indicates how knee-jerk these policies are.’
The Government U-turn came after a week in which ministers repeatedly insisted pre-departure tests would not be needed. In a podcast interview recorded on Wednesday and posted on Friday, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said ministers did not want to ‘kill off the travel sector again’.
On Thursday, science minister George Freeman said further travel tests would put the economy ‘on its knees’.
But a source said chief medical officer Chris Whitty had made a powerful case to ministers on Saturday, citing a flight from South Africa to the Netherlands on which 11 passengers had Omicron.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab insisted that the pre-departure tests were ‘not prohibitive’, but acknowledged it would make only a ‘marginal difference’ to the spread of the new variant.
Professor Mark Woolhouse, who advises the Government’s Sage committee, said it was too late for the measure to slow the spread of the virus. ‘I think that may be a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted,’ he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
‘If Omicron is here in the UK, and it certainly is, if there’s community transmission in the UK, and it certainly looks that way, then it’s that community transmission that will drive a next wave. It’s too late to make a material difference to the course of the Omicron wave, if we’re going to have one.’
The UK health Security Agency
said a further 86 cases of Omicron had been confirmed in the UK on Sunday, bringing the total to 246.
Tory MP Henry Smith, chairman of the Future of Aviation group of MPs, said the new testing regime was ‘a massive blow that will hit our economy, jobs and place these vital industries into peril just as they were looking to recover’. Alistair Rowland, chairman of the Association of British Travel Agents, said the fragile recovery in the industry had been shattered.
■ Nigeria has been added to the travel red list after 21 cases of the Omicron variant in England were linked to travel from the west African nation. From 4am today, only British and Irish nationals and residents travelling from Nigeria will be allowed into the UK, and they will be required to isolate in a government-managed quarantine hotel.
MORE positive news is emerging by the day about the likely impact of the Omicron variant. Although the Covid strain is present in at least 38 countries, the World health Organisation says no one has died from it.
Fresh evidence from South Africa, where it’s believed to have started, indicates that its symptoms are generally ‘mild’.
And that point was reinforced yesterday by leading Cambridge statistician Professor David Spiegelhalter, who said: ‘It doesn’t look as if [Omicron] is really severe.’
Yet despite these hugely encouraging signals, the Covid restrictions which brought our economy to its knees are slowly creeping back.
In addition to the rules reintroduced last week on masks, self-isolation and international travel, tomorrow sees the return of pre-departure tests for anyone coming here from abroad.
Aviation industry bosses said the cost and complexity of this policy would be ‘a major deterrent’ to travel over the Christmas period and deal a ‘devastating blow’ to a sector already deep in crisis.
It also leaves around a million Britons overseas scrambling to get a test so they are allowed to fly home.
The respected Centre for economic and Business Research think-tank expects the wider economy to take a £5.3billion hit just from the restrictions brought back so far.
With talk of vaccine passports, more working from home and a return to social distancing, that figure could soon rocket – and countless businesses could lose the battle for survival.
The Daily Mail sympathises with ministers in their bid to do the right thing. having been heavily criticised for their slow reaction to the Delta variant this year, they fear being caught out again. But they must also retain a sharp sense of perspective.
Lockdown measures have dire and lasting consequences on the nation’s mental and physical health as well as the economy. In considering any new restriction, they must be certain it’s truly necessary.
Yes, we need to know a lot more about Omicron and its likely impact. But what we know so far suggests there is no need for panic measures.