Anger of British families caught in Portugal fiasco
MINISTERS faced a furious backlash from holidaymakers yesterday as they were forced to admit different quarantine policies across the UK were leading to confusion for passengers.
Angry Scots travellers branded the quarantine policy a ‘shambles’ after racing home from Portugal and Greece.
Many had booked early flights back to Scotland following Nicola Sturgeon’s decision to impose quarantine on those travelling from Portugal.
The stricter rules came into force north of the Border at 4am today, despite the holiday hotspot remaining on England’s travel corridor list.
Last night, there were questions over whether the UK Government had heeded the recommendations of its Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC).
Downing Street did not deny the advice from the JBC had been that travel from Portugal and the six Greek islands restricted by Wales should be subject to quarantine.
UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tried to defend taking a different decision from leaders in Scotland and Wales, but accepted it created problems.
‘I do realise it creates confusion for people not to have a single rule, but we do have this devolved approach throughout the United Kingdom and I can only be responsible for the English part of that,’ he told Sky News.
Downing Street did not deny that the advice from the JBC was that travel from Portugal and the six Greek islands restricted by Wales presents a risk of spreading coronavirus.
A No 10 spokesman said: ‘Ministers assess the data which is provided by JBC and the JBC risk assessments are assessed by ministers.’
Hundreds of Scots paid for early return flights and cut short their holidays after Miss Sturgeon announced those flying back from Portugal today would face restrictions. David and Gayle Campbell flew to their villa in the Algarve just over a fortnight ago on the day the quarantine restrictions for Portugal were lifted.
But yesterday they returned to Glasgow hours before they were reimposed, cutting their holiday short by three days and paying more than £100 each to book alternative flights.
Mrs Campbell said: ‘What seems ridiculous is it’s so inconsistent across the UK. People in England haven’t had to fly back early.’ She added: ‘It doesn’t feel fair.’
Friends Pauline McCully, 57, and Margaret Wilson, 64, booked a week in Vilamoura on the Algarve as soon as Portugal appeared on the UK’s safe list last month.
‘It was a bit of nightmare,’ said Miss McCully, from Hamilton, Lanarkshire. ‘We kept following the news and by Tuesday we’d decided we couldn’t take the chance and changed our flights to come home a day early.’
Derek Burt took his mother to Portugal for one last holiday after she was diagnosed with a terminal illness. The family from Dunfermline, Fife, were facing a race against time to get an earlier flight home.
Mr Burt said that ‘nobody has a clue what the governments are thinking’, adding: ‘It’s a complete shambles.’
Last night, Boris Johnson tried to insist ‘overwhelmingly, the UK is proceeding as one’.
On a visit to Solihull, he said different devolved administrations have ‘different rates of infectivity’ and approaches to the crisis.
But he added: ‘I think you will find if you dig below the surface of some of the surface differentiations you will find overwhelmingly the UK takes the same approach.’