Quarantine a ‘three-week fudge’ as airlines plan summer flights
Conservative MPS have attacked plans to force travellers to the UK into quarantine, raising doubts over whether the policy will be maintained through the summer.
Home Secretary Priti Patel defended plans to require most people arriving in the country to quarantine for 14 days, saying they were “essential” to save lives.
Tory MPS including former Prime Minister Theresa May have warned that the measures - which come into force on Monday - will cause huge damage to the travel and aviation sectors as they recover from the coronavirus outbreak.
Presenting new regulations in the House of Commons, Ms Patel said the measures were “backed by the science” and were crucial to ensure the gains made in fighting the virus were not lost.
In England, anyone breaking self-isolation requirements could face fines of £1,000 or prosecution.thescottishgovernment has not decided what penalties it will impose.
Ms Patel acknowledged the requirements would present difficulties for the tourism industry but said they would be kept under regular review to ensure they remained “proportionate and necessary”.
“We trust the British people - and our visitors - to play their part, to act responsibly and follow the rules to control the spread of coronavirus,” the Home Secretary said.
“But we will not allow a reckless minority to put our recovery at risk - so there will be penalties and enforcement for those who break them.”
With more European countries reopening their borders and restarting their tourist industries, pressure is growing for the measures to be swiftly reviewed.
Ms Patel said ministers were considering how to allow greater freedom in future including establishing “international travel corridors” with countries that were deemed safe.
The regulations would be reviewed every three weeks with the first review taking place in the week of June 28.
There was strong criticism from opposition parties and some Conservative MPS. Labour’s shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-symonds called for scientific advice on the measures to be published, andwarnedtheyshouldnotbe “a three-week fudge to try to spare the Government embarrassment for failing to grip this issue at the right time”.
Conservative former international trade secretary Liam Fox said the measures would plunge the UK into “unnecessary economic isolation” while the public health benefits were unclear.
“I simply cannot get my head around the public health gymnastics of this policy. If such a barrier was required why was it not introduced earlier in the outbreak?” he asked.
“If it is a contingency measure against a so-called second wave, why apply it to countries with a lower infection than we already have? Surely the answer lies in Government’s test-and-trace system rather than unnecessary economic isolation?”
And Mrs May joined attacks on the policy, asking: “Instead of bringing in measures to close Britain off from the rest of the world, why is the government not taking a lead in developing international aviation health screening standards to save jobs and ensure Britain is open for business?”
The SNP’S Home Office spokeswoman Joanna Cherry said the measures were “too little, too late” and called on the government to “rapidly adopt appropriate, evidence based health protection measures at our borders.”
The announcement came as airlines announced plans to re-start at least ten routes from airports at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Prestwick.
And the Portuguese foreign minister confirming his country was in discussions with the UK about “air bridges” so tourists could avoid being quarantined.
Portugal’s Augusto Santos Silva told the BBC: “Our diplomats will work together in order to guarantee that British tourists coming to Portugal would not be subjected on their return to any kind of quarantine.”
Ryanair, Jet2 and Easyjet are among airlines hoping to restart flights between Scotland and Portugal. Ryanair plans to resume flights from Edinburgh to Faro on 1 July and to Lisbon and Porto on 4 July. It has also scheduled flights from Prestwick to Faro from 4 July.
Easyjet’s website shows flights from Edinburgh to Lisbon from 18 June, but they are listed as sold out until 16 July. Its Glasgow-faro flights are listed as due to operate from 26 June, but are shown as sold out until August.
Jet2 plans to resume Edinburgh and Glasgow flights to Faro in July and Madeira in August.
Easyjet, Scotland’s biggest airline, said a “risk-based approach” should be be taken and it backed air bridges to countries with very few new Covid-19 cases, such as Greece.
It also called for “clear criteria” for air bridges to be published “so new ones can be put in place as soon as possible.
The airline added: “Where the science allows, governments should look at the possibility of introducing ‘Covid passports’, identifying passengers who have been infected and are therefore immune.
“Rapid testing prior to departure or on arrival may help to make this possible.”