New blow to holidays

Passengers arriving in UK WILL have to quarantine for a fortnight

MINISTERS will today press ahead with a 14- day quarantine plan for all ports and airports – despite warnings it will wreck families’ hopes of a summer getaway.

After weeks of internal wrangling, the Government will today confirm all travellers to the UK will have to self-isolate for a fortnight after arrival.

The ‘ blanket’ policy has been agreed despite a plea by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps to establish ‘air bridges’ to holiday hotspots in Europe. From early June, travellers arriving at all ports and airports will be ordered to go into self-isolation for a fortnight. It will apply to those returning from holiday abroad.

Police will have the power to impose £1,000 spot fines on those who breach the order, with magistrates able to impose potentially unlimited fines if the penalties are not paid. Foreign nationals who refuse to agree to self-isolate will be banned from entering the UK.

Truck drivers will be exempt from the rules to prevent disruption to vital supplies such as food.

Transit passengers, who do not formally enter the UK, will also be exempt. But pleas for a broad exemption for business have been rejected. Only a small number of specialist workers will be exempt from what insiders said would initially be a ‘blanket’ policy.

The quarantine plan is designed to stop the UK importing new cases of the virus. It will be reviewed every three weeks. But Whitehall sources played down hopes it could be lifted before the summer holiday season. It comes despite Mr Shapps on Monday raising the idea of ‘air bridges’ with popular tourist destinations such as Spain.

Madrid yesterday signalled it might be prepared to welcome UK tourists from July without asking them to self-isolate for 14 days. But last night’s announcement of a blanket UK quarantine seems to rule out an ‘air bridge’ deal with Spain. Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said: ‘What we’ve had is incredibly confusing messages from the Government. We have a possible air bridge announced one day, only for someone else to pop up later to say it won’t happen.’

Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said: ‘We need to find a way that the vast, vast, vast majority of people who don’t have a disease can still fly.’ It came as Italy yesterday announced airports will reopen from June 3. EU tourists will be allowed in from that date, with the 14-day quarantine waived. But this would only include Britons if the UK also dropped its quarantine plans for arrivals from Italy.

A Department for Transport spokesman said yesterday: ‘Ultimately, we will be guided by the science, with the health of the public always coming first.’

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‘Confusing messages’