Cricketer Kevin strikes at lack of airport tests
CRICKET star Kevin Pietersen flew back into the UK from South Africa yesterday and immediately attacked the Government’s policy on lack of testing to allow passengers in.
The former England batsman said he and his family had Covid-19 tests before they left South Africa but was angry they were not made compulsory by the British authorities.
South Africa is the home of a lethal new Covid-19 variant which is proving difficult to contain.
There has been fierce criticism of the Government for failing to impose stricter rules on people arriving in the UK.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said yesterday they were hoping to bring in new checks soon.
But South Africa-born Pietersen, 40, said it should have happened already. He made his views known in a series of tweets and when people criticised him for flying back, his wife Jessica jumped in to defend the decision.
Pietersen, inset, said: “Landed from South Africa earlier. When we got to passport control, the officer sighed and looked gutted that a flight full of people had just landed from SA. She was very professional and did a fabulous job, but the job entailed taking us away to a seated area, whilst she took our passports somewhere.
“She was away for 5min and then came back, told us we had to self-isolate for 10 days and let us go. The UK needs to make negative PCR tests compulsory.”
Labour’s Yvette Cooper challenged Ms Patel on why more travel measures “were taking so long?”