Pressure on PM to build air bridges with all EU
Johnson expected to signal change of plan after backlash at Portugal being missed off
BORIS JOHNSON was yesterday under pressure to open air bridges to the whole of Europe at once, as he prepared to announce that “dozens” of countries would be exempted from the 14-day quarantine rule.
The Prime Minister is expected to signal the change in policy today when he announces the go-ahead for air bridges, starting with some of the most popular Mediterranean holiday destinations which include Italy, France, Spain and Greece.
The list of up to 50 nations and the full coronavirus criteria used by Public Health England (PHE) to determine those for the first wave of air bridges opening from July 4 is due to be published on Monday.
It is also expected to include most western and northern European countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Finland and “low risk” island nations.
However, drafts of the list this week excluded Portugal, one of the top holiday destinations for Britons, because of an outbreak of coronavirus in and around Lisbon. Sweden was also left off because of its higher rate of infection, as were many other nations.
A government source said: “If you look at countries where there isn’t any Covid, and that is the metric, you capture dozens of small countries and you can expect them to be published in the first air bridges.
“Not all of them are places you would consider to be holiday destinations but will be island nations.”
Henry Smith, the Conservative chairman of the all-party Future of Aviation group, said that the Government’s air bridge plan was a “welcome first step”, but that the apparent decision to exclude Portugal was “curious” and that it was a mistake not to open corridors to all EU countries.
“EU countries have had a similar, if not better, coronavirus experience than us. I think that is the most straightforward and eloquent way to approach it,” said Mr Smith.
Paul Charles, spokesman for the campaign group Quash Quarantine, which represents 400 of the biggest travel and hospitality businesses in Britain, said an air bridge to Spain but not Portugal would be unenforceable and would lead to “tourism subterfuge”.
“You are not going to be able to stop British people flying to Madrid, driving a car to Portugal, then going back via Madrid,” said Mr Charles, chief executive of PC Consultancy.
“That’s why it needs a pan-european travel corridor. There are many states in Europe but it is, in effect, one country because of freedom of movement under Schengen.”
Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister announced last night that travel restrictions between Ireland and a number of countries would be lifted on July 9. Passengers travelling to the countries contained on a “green list” will not have to quarantine for 14 days, Mr Varadkar confirmed.
This is likely to increase the potential exemptions to Britain’s quarantine rule because anyone flying into Ireland will be free to come to the UK as part of the Common Travel area. All of the
countries listed by Britain have been judged as satisfying criteria drawn up by Prof Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, and PHE. This includes each country’s infection rate, whether it is rising or falling and whether it has a test and trace system to limit any outbreaks as well as social distancing rules as strict as the UK’S. A second measure used by the Government takes account of countries’ economic tourism benefit and their popularity.
However, ministers faced a potential diplomatic backlash last night.
Professor Henrique Barros, one of Portugal’s most-respected epidemiologists, told The Daily Telegraph there was no “scientific or empirical information that might make [leaving Portugal off the air bridge list] acceptable”, particularly given “the UK is much worse than Portugal”.
The Portuguese National Health Council president rejected any suggestion that the country was experiencing a “second wave” of infections, describing the situation as “clearly controlled”. Some 19 parishes have been put back in a “stay at home” lockdown.
Prof Barros took issue with the use of isolated indicators to rank countries’ responses, saying it made more sense to make comparisons between regions.
Portugal is understood to be of concern to PHE officials because of evidence of “community spread”, as opposed to cases being contained in factories as in Germany (where the rate has fallen back down to 0.72).
Its R rate was 1.08 this week, compared with England’s range of 0.7 to 0.9, but the daily number of new cases is 311 in Portugal – lower than the UK’S 652.
The policy is expected to be finalised at a rescheduled meeting today with Mr Johnson, Michael Gove, Grant Shapps, Dominic Raab and Priti Patel.
Ministers are also looking to open up air bridges to “low-risk” British territories as soon as possible including Gibraltar, Bermuda, Montserrat and the Falkland Islands, even though the number of flights and demand are low.