Johnson dismisses airport quarantine ‘loophole’ fears
●Sturgeon demands solution as air travellers bypass stricter Scottish rules
Downing Street has brushed aside Scottish Government concerns over a “loophole” in the UK’S Covid-19 defences as the first passengers flying into London and then onto Edinburgh bypassed the stricter quarantine rules north of the Border.
Under Scotland’ s new managed isolationrules, all travellers arriving from abroad must undergo a 10-day hotel lockdown, at a cost of £1,750, whereas only those from 33 ‘red list’ countries need to do the same in England.
As the rules came into force yesterday, travellers landing in Edinburgh who had set off from Greece and Australiawere able to bypass the hotel lock down, because they had flown in via London. The SNP has described the situation – which means anyone flying into Scotland from a non-’red list’ country via a London airport has to be treated as a regular domestic passenger – as a loophole in the regulations.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said that the border with England may have to be closed if a solution is not found.
The border between the two nations is not supposed to be crossed except in the case of essential travel, but Ms Sturgeon said she“would not rule out” stricter measures.
The scottish government’ s concerns were effectively dismissed by number 10 as the new rules came into effect.
Asked about the ‘loophole’
concerns, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said: “If travellers arrive in England from a red-list country and wish to continue to Scotland, they will first need to complete ten days in managed quarantine in England.
“If a traveller arrives in England from an amber-list country and wishes to continue to Scotland, they will be able to do so, but will then fall under Scottish quarantine rules on entry.”
The First Minister raised the stakes in the disupte when she was asked about the potential closure of the Border at yesterday’s daily coronavirus briefing. She said: "I don’t rule it out. I would like to have the most effective system in place here.
"I' m not sure it is the best solution to have, but if it's the only one I can put into place, then it may come to that.”
She added that she would prefer to see a cohesive approach between nations.
"It would be better if we had that four nations approach, or certainly at least a three nations approach, where the border of the island that Scotland England and Wales share had the same provisions in place.”
She added: “My responsibility is to try to protect Scotland as much as possible so if it just proves impossible to do that then we have to look at alternatives, but it would be far better to try to come to a reasonable agreement on a four nations, or at least a three nations, basis.”
Ms Sturgeon added that she did not criticise the UK government’s approach.
"We all have a duty to take the decisions that we think are appropriate,” she said.
It is understood that at least three people swerved quarantinewhen they arrived into scotland on domestic flights yesterday.
These included a couple who had flown from Greece into London before boarding a flight to Edinburgh, and another passenger who had arrived from Australia into London before catching their connecting flight to the Scottish capital.
Greece is facing its highest number of Covid-19 cases since the start of 2021 with 1,492 new cases recorded on Tuesday last week following the peak of the disease in November.
Leaders in the country also extended the full lockdown currently imposed on Athens to other regions of the country in a bid to contain the spread of Covid-19.
Australia has a relatively low prevalence of the disease, but large cities have faced repeated lock downs, including Melbournewhich entered renewed restrictions on Friday.
The total number of individuals arriving in england and travelling to Scotland domestically is not known and is not tracked by officials.
Only individuals arriving directly to Scotland from any country or via Ireland from a ‘red list’ country are required to isolate in quarantine hotels, with those arriving through domestic travel such as buses, trains, or flights free to return home without quarantining.
Red-list countries include Brazil, Argentina, Portugal and South Africa.
Concerns have also been raised at the potential political ramifications of asking passengersarriving from there public of Ireland for documents while allowing those arriving from Northern Ireland to pass without equivalent checks.
This was raised as potentially worrying due to concerns around border checks and the links to the Good Friday Agreement. However, experts said there was unlikely to be any issue or any breach of the agreement.
Reacting, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: "The Scottish Government promised a tough system of quarantine, but all that tough talk means nothing if they can't make it work in practice.
"At the moment their quarantine plans appear to be crumbling like feta cheese. the transport secretary needs to get on the phone to his opposite number in London and figure out a solution as soon as possible."
Scottish Labour’s transport spokesperson col ins myth said: “The border loophole makes a mockery of the SNP Government’s tough talk on quarantine. Their slow response to introducing airport testing and properly en forcing the previous quarantine regime undoubtedly led to cases of Covid being imported to scotland. now their last-minute response to issues that should have been ironed out before now – and the poor relations between the UK and Scottish governments – means there is no sign of any agreement to ensure anyone flying into an english airport en-route to Scotland from a non-red list country would need to quarantine in a hotel.
"Once again the SNP’S actions don’t live up to their rhetoric.”
A spokesman for Scotland’s biggest aviation hub Edinburgh Airport said: "It is clear that airlines and passengers are still confused about what is required of them, so we are lucky that numbers are so low and easily manageable.
"Unfortunately we understanda small number of passengers who were in amber countries in the past few days have travelled on domestic flights and entered into Scotland. We encourage governments to discuss how to end this confusion and close this obvious loophole that they have created."
The first passengers who were required to isolate at a cost of £1,750 under Scottish Government managed isolation rules are a family of three, including a mother, her toddler and her baby. The family arrived on Scotland’s only major international flight arrival of the day – a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul that landed around 11am. It is understood just four passengers travelled on the flight, including the family. The only other passenger was initially thought to be a sailor and exempt but on arrival it was discovered he had to isolate.