QUARANTINE REBELLION
May leads Tory revolt over scheme set to ruin holidays – despite hints at air bridges and antibody test ‘passport’
‘Close Britain off to rest of the world’ ‘More risk at Bournemouth’
THERESA May led a Tory backbench revolt against the Government’s quarantine plans yesterday, as ministers were begged to delay or abandon the scheme.
The former prime minister urged officials to develop a new virus screening system rather than ‘bringing in measures to close Britain off from the rest of the world’.
MPs told Priti Patel the blanket requirement to self-isolate for 14 days would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs in the UK’s tourism and aviation industries.
The Home Secretary insisted the scheme will come into force on Monday – but indicated for the first time that it could be adapted to make use of coronavirus antibody tests. Senior sources said the scheme could offer concessions to travellers who can prove they had had the virus – meaning they were less likely to catch the disease again or spread it to others.
In its current form, the quarantine scheme will cost the British tourism industry an astonishing £19.7 billion, according to official body Visit Britain.
The Prime Minister last night confirmed that ministers were in talks with a range of European countries about the possibilBritain ity of establishing ‘travel corridors’, opening up the prospect of foreign travel to at least some destinations without quarantine. He told the daily No10 briefing: ‘I don’t want to go into the detail, but clearly we are discussing with our partners all around Europe about what can be done. It is one of the most difficult things to get right.’
Downing Street ducked questions about whether the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) had recommended the quarantine plan, saying only that it had been drawn up with the help of scientific advice. But chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance indicated the policy was mistimed.
‘The Sage advice is that measures like this are most effective when cases are very low and when they are applied to countries with higher rates,’ he said.
Legislation published last night will allow the quarantine scheme to be in force for up to a year. It also emerged that travellers, including Britons, will have to provide up to 30 separate pieces of information when they fill in a ‘contact locator form’ before coming to the UK.
In the Commons, Mrs May said: ‘Instead of measures to close Britain off from the rest of the world, why is the Government not taking a lead in developing an international aviation health screening standard to save jobs and ensure is open for business?’
Aviation minister Kelly Tolhurst said: ‘We’re working incredibly hard to gain consumer confidence so people want to travel again, but also being able to get those measures in place in order that we can also meet our objective of keeping people safe and reducing the spread of coronavirus.’ Tory backbencher Ben Spencer described the quarantine as a ‘very blunt tool with many downsides and consequences, and effectively grounds the aviation industry’.
Tory MP Mark Pritchard called for a ‘flexible quarantine, rather than a blanket quarantine, so that countries with high infection rates can be targeted’.
Former aviation minister Theresa Villiers recommended suspending the plans to buy more time to agree safe air corridors, while former Tory Cabinet minister Liam Fox said he struggled to understand the ‘public health mental gymnastics’ ministers were using to justify the need for quarantine.
Chairman of the Conservatives’ 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, told the Home Secretary: ‘Hundreds of thousands of jobs will be lost if the airlines are unable to fly peak summer schedules.’ Mrs Patel described the quarantine measures as a ‘proportionate and time-limited approach to protect the health of the British public’. She told MPs: ‘We will only consider reviewing these measures when the evidence shows that it’s safe to do so because public health will always come first.’
Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas Symonds urged Mrs Patel to come back to the Commons before the end of the first three‘If week period to set out her ‘exit strategy’ from quarantine and her plans for travel corridors. It came as one academic said quarantine made ‘zero sense’, and Britons were more at risk on Bournemouth beach than in Portugal.
Professor Keith Neal, of the University of Nottingham, said: ‘I would be more worried about holidaying in this country than going abroad. you go on holiday to a country with lower infection rates and maintain social distancing then you are at lower risk than you would be in the UK. Most European countries have lower rates of infection than Britain, so what are we trying to achieve by stopping travel?’
Dr Stephen Griffin, from the University of Leeds, added: ‘Quarantine is generally aimed at either preventing the earliest importation of cases, or to maintain low numbers after suppression of an outbreak. The former did not occur, and we are not currently at an appropriate stage to affect the latter.’
Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, said: ‘Airlines can’t start operations overnight. If they leave it too late we risk the summer season being over and losing out to countries who are starting to open up their borders now.’