US urged to scrap travel ban on Britons
BRITAIN expects the US to drop its UK travel ban after ministers reopened the borders to Americans, the Transport Secretary said last night.
Grant Shapps yesterday announced that fully vaccinated travellers from the US and the EU would be allowed to enter Britain without quarantine from Monday morning. He also made clear that he expects the move to be reciprocated for British holidaymakers.
Currently the US bars entry to travellers from Britain, as well as those from China, Brazil, India, South Africa and much of Europe including Switzerland and Norway.
There had been hopes that Washington and European nations would open up their borders at the same time as this country, but that looked to have failed last night, calling into question Britain’s approach of bypassing Brussels and appealing directly to European countries to permit travel.
Diplomatic pressure on Washington DC to open the US border is set to intensify after the UK saw Covid cases fall for seven straight days before rising slightly yesterday. The Daily Telegraph understands that Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, raised the issue in recent weeks with his opposite number Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State. Karen Pierce, the British ambassador, is also pushing the UK’S case in her meetings with congressmen and officials in Joe Biden’s administration.
“Everyone is lobbying the Americans left, right and centre,” one diplomatic source said. Another predicted a renewed drive to convince the US to “open up”.
However, aviation sources closely following discussions said Mr Biden may not lift America’s overseas travel ban until September.
Yesterday, Mr Shapps announced that from 4am on Monday, fully vaccinated travellers from the US and EU can enter the UK without the need to quarantine. However, the same is not true in reverse, with the US still closed to double-jabbed Britons, barring a few exemptions, and a dozen EU countries having some form of restrictions.
Asked if he was confident that the US and EU would reciprocate with a similar relaxation of the rules, Mr Shapps said: “It will depend. We can only set the rules at our end, and that has always been the case.”
Mr Shapps, who spoke to Pete Buttigieg, the US transport secretary, yesterday, added: “So we’re saying, ‘You can come here, you can come visit, you can come see friends, you can come as a tourist if you’ve been double vaccinated and follow the rules without quarantine’.
“We can’t change that on the other side but we do expect that in time they will release that executive order, which was actually signed by the previous president.”
Both Boris Johnson and Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, yesterday stressed the need to remain cautious about the recent fall in cases, with the full impact of last week’s lifting of most remaining Covid restrictions in England and Wales yet to fully emerge.
Mr Johnson told LBC Radio: “We’ve seen some encouraging recent data, there’s no question about that, but it is far, far too early to draw any general conclusions.”
Before the pandemic more than five million Britons visited the US, and more than 4.5 million Americans visited the UK, every year.
It is possible for US travel exemptions to be granted from the American embassy in London but business leaders have complained about how difficult they are to acquire. One leading figure at a UK-US business group said: “There has been a year-plus of CEOS and senior executives of major companies that cannot get into the US to carry out their business and they are going crazy. The pressure is unbelievable.”
Mr Johnson and Mr Biden pledged to work together to reopen cross-atlantic travel when they met in person for the first time last month at the G7 summit in Cornwall. The travel ban was imposed by Donald Trump in March last year.
Boris Johnson has returned to Downing Street from his self-isolation at Chequers seemingly intent upon speeding up the country’s reopening amid concern that the UK is squandering its vaccine “bonus”. The announcement that fully jabbed arrivals to England from America and amber-listed European countries will no longer have to quarantine from Monday is a step in the right direction. The Government hopes that this will lead to a reciprocal response, allowing UK business travellers and tourists the same access.
Despite the UK having vaccinated more people more quickly than almost any European country, the EU is opening up faster with cross-border travel within the Schengen area now straightforward. The tourism and aviation industries have been pressing ministers for weeks to relax the restrictions.
The number of green-listed countries is to be expanded but France remains in a specially created “amber plus” category, which requires travellers from the UK to quarantine upon their return even if they have been double vaccinated.
The complexities and testing costs involved in travelling continue to put people off, although hundreds of thousands are still determined to get away for a summer break. Whether or not there is method behind this policy, the consequence could well be to persuade people to stay in the UK this summer and spend money here that would otherwise go to hoteliers and restaurateurs abroad.
Sooner rather than later, the UK needs to open up to the rest of the world, not least when so many people have either had both vaccine doses or can show evidence of antibodies. Hopes that the US may respond in kind are unlikely to be realised soon. The EU is now open to American tourists but most visitors are still barred across the Atlantic due to Washington’s concern over the delta variant.
The change in quarantine rules comes ahead of what the Prime Minister said is a “nailed on” decision to end self-isolation for doubly vaccinated people from Aug 16. We hope the Government will stick to this timetable and not, as happened on June 21, postpone the changes. However, there is still much uncertainty including about what is to happen in schools when the new term begins and whether any clear guidance is to be issued over returning to the office. These matters need to be resolved before the summer is out.