NOW SLASH COST OF HOLIDAY TESTS
MPs and travel bosses plead with PM over sky-high swabs
TRAVEL chiefs and Tory MPs last night demanded Boris Johnson urgently address ‘rip-off’ Covid tests for holidaymakers.
Families face paying hundreds of pounds extra to travel abroad this summer unless ministers make the mandatory testing requirements less onerous and more affordable.
The Mail has been campaigning since
June for the Government to deliver on its promise to significantly drive down prices and simplify the system.
But the Treasury is refusing to axe VAT on the ‘gold standard’ PCR tests, which would significantly slash costs.
Last night campaigners and MPs demanded ministers allow travellers returning from green and amber countries to take cheaper lateral flow tests on their return.
They pointed out that only a fraction of PCR tests were being sequenced for ‘variants of concern’ from abroad – undermining one of the key justifications for their use.
Under current rules, even double-jabbed holidaymakers must take a PCR test two days after they return from amber and green countries. Tests are also required before travellers fly home, and many countries require proof of a negative test on arrival.
While government-approved providers advertise PCR tests from as little as £20, many of these are unavailable – often leaving families facing bills of hundreds of pounds.
The Prime Minister yesterday insisted the Government was trying to make it ‘as simple as we can’ for holidaymakers.
He said: ‘We want people to be able to travel, we want the travel industry to get going again, we want to see tourists coming back to our country – but you’ve got to balance that against the need to protect ourselves.’
The Department for Health is conducting checks on testing providers and removing rogue ones, but one Government insider last night described the approach as ‘a bit whack-a-mole’.
Ministers are understood to have no plans to make changes to the testing system before October.
Tory MP Huw Merriman, chairman of the Commons transport committee, told the Mail: ‘We’ve been told that the requirement for expensive PCR testing is to sequence for variants of concern from abroad.
‘In just three weeks from 1 July, passengers spent £35million on 500,000 PCR tests. Of that number, 6,977 tested positive for Covid but, staggeringly, only 5 per cent of those positive cases were sequenced for variants of concern.
‘This demonstrates that passengers are paying extra for a PCR service which is not even being carried out.’ Tim Alderslade, chief executive of the trade body Airlines UK, said it was ‘not at all clear why expensive PCR testing is required from green countries and for the fully vaccinated when the positivity rate is so tiny and cheaper, quicker testing has been found to be just as effective’.
He said passenger bookings in the UK stand at just 16 per cent of 2019 operations – compared to 48 per cent in France and 60 per cent in Germany.
Travel agent trade group Abta said PCR tests in the UK cost ‘twice as much compared to the rest of Europe’ as it urged the Government to take urgent action.
A spokesman said ministers should eliminate VAT on tests, consider using lateral flow tests for people returning from low-risk countries and consider exempting fully-vaccinated travellers from some testing requirements.
Labour’s Ben Bradshaw, a member of the Commons transport committee, said: ‘We’ve got the worst of both worlds: we’ve ended up with one of the highest death rates in the world but we’ve also completely unnecessarily trashed a really important industry.’
A Government spokesman last night insisted post-arrival tests are an ‘important tool’ and allow variants of concern to be identified.
They added: ‘We recognise that the cost of tests can be high, which is why we’re working with the travel industry and private testing providers to see how we can further reduce the cost of travel for the British public.’
‘Need to protect ourselves’