Are holidays off the table? Grant Shapps refuses to confirm major destinations will be on the green list this summer due to the threat of Covid variants as he hints vaccines hold the key
- Grant Shapps said ministers will be 'super cautious' over opening foreign travel
- The government removed Portugal from the green travel list over Covid-19 fears
- Shapps has not warned people against booking trips to popular destinations
- Airlines are putting on extra flights from Portugal so Britons can return earlySummer holidays to our favourite European hotspots looked in doubt last night as Grant Shapps refused to confirm major destinations would be on the green list.
The Transport Secretary said ministers must be ‘super cautious’ over the reopening of foreign travel.
He told the Mail the Government couldn’t afford to ‘take any chances’ due to the perceived threat of new Covid variants at holiday destinations.
Britons hoping for a foreign holiday this summer face a confusing choice after Portugal was moved from the green to amber list leaving thousands of people at risk of quarantine unless they can fly home before Tuesday
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, pictured, said he would not advise Britons against booking foreign holidays, though he acknowledged that such trips to places such as France, Greece, Spain and Italy may not be possible before AugustHe stopped short of saying travellers should not book holidays, adding that it was ‘hard to know’ whether trips to hotspots such as France, Greece, Spain and Italy would be possible before August.It came as the sudden decision to downgrade Portugal from green to amber saw thousands rushing to return to the UK yesterday before quarantine rules kick in.
Airlines scrambled to lay on extra planes so holidaymakers in Portugal can rebook return flights to make it back by Tuesday’s deadline.
At one point, the cost of a seat on the last plane out of Faro on Monday night hit £771. Prices fell as airlines laid on more flights.
It is estimated that 112,000 Britons are currently in Portugal on holiday.
EasyJet said it was laying on 1,000 extra seats, on routes from Faro to Gatwick, Luton, Bristol and Manchester airports.British Airways said it was chartering an extra plane tomorrow and another on Monday.
But families who can’t get a seat, or choose to stay and quarantine on return, face extra testing bills. Passengers returning from an amber country have to take two post-arrival tests, rather than one for green countries.
If travellers opt to pay for a third post-arrival test on day five to allow early release, the bill would be hundreds more.
The average price of a PCR post-arrival test from Government-approved private providers is about £111 but the cheapest is £44.
Yesterday, angry travel industry leaders called on ministers to publish the data on which they base their country ranking decisions. In a letter to Mr Shapps, Airlines UK, which represents all the major UK-registered carriers, said the downgrading of Portugal had come as both a ‘shock and severe blow’ to the industry.
It added it was concerned the Government was seeking to ‘curtail air travel rather than facilitate it where it is safe to do so’ and that ‘decisions on country allocation remain clouded in mystery, making it impossible for airlines and our customers to plan’.
The trade body also demanded to know why no new low-risk destinations were added to the green list, despite low infection rates in locations such as Malta, the Balearic Islands and some Greek islands. It said the key thresholds for when countries turn a different colour should also be published.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, CEO of travel agent group Advantage Travel Partnership, said the decision to take Portugal off the green list was ‘an absolute devastating blow for consumers and the industry of a really seismic scale’, and that it ‘throws confidence completely out of the window’.
The UK has a seven-day average infection rate of 35 per 100,000 of the population, similar to Portugal’s. Professor Henrique Barros, president of Portugal’s National Health Council, branded the move ‘an overreaction’.
Ministers removed Portugal from the green list on Thursday after just three weeks, citing a doubling of case numbers and the ‘Nepal variant’. But Professor Barros said: ‘We didn’t reach such an increase, except as I said in a specific area around Lisbon.’
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick yesterday said he was not aware of any cases of the Nepal variant in the UK but that Portuguese scientists had detected it.
Britons face a race against time to come back to the UK ahead of Tuesday morning's deadline moving Portugal from the green to amber list
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We took the decision that it was better to be cautious whilst we learn about this new mutation of the variant.’
Asked yesterday whether European hotspots could go on the green list before August, Mr Shapps told the Mail: ‘It’s very hard to know and it’s of course very largely dependent on how well other places are doing with their vaccine programme.
‘It’s a fact [that] we got a very long way ahead with our vaccine programme... but obviously it will help as other countries catch up.
‘It’s very hard to make predictions other than to say we’ve just got to give ourselves the best possible chance of unlocking domestically and I think most people feel the same way about this – let’s not take any chances.’ He added: ‘Nobody wants to restrict people’s freedom to go on holiday... but we just have to be super cautious.’
Last night, Labour wrote to the Government to say that amber countries Thailand and Vietnam should be added to the red list due to concerns over new variants.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, shadow home secretary, said: ‘It beggars belief that Conservative ministers opened up an ambiguous ‘amber list’, causing mass confusion and allowing thousands of people to travel to the UK from countries, including Thailand and Vietnam, with rising Covid numbers.’
Ditched, promise of free tests before families fly home
By Claire Ellicott and David Churchill
Ministers have been accused of abandoning plans to slash the price of holidays abroad by allowing families to bring free rapid Covid-19 tests with them.
A scheme to allow holidaymakers to take a lateral flow test before returning to Britain was considered earlier this year. But sources said the money to pay for it was due to run out this month – and no plans to replace the funding have been announced.
There were concerns about whether the tests would gain official approval due to the difficulty of proving when they are taken, as well as questions over their accuracy.
It means that ministers have missed an opportunity to save hard-pressed families money when they go abroad.
Ministers have been accused of abandoning plans to slash the price of holidays abroad by allowing families to bring free rapid Covid-19 tests with them
Cheaper and faster lateral flow tests are currently being handed out for free by the Government for anyone who needs them. And airlines have argued that the UK is holding passengers to far higher standards than other countries by refusing to allow the rapid tests, which ministers deem good enough for schools. The failure to provide the free tests means families who go abroad are having to pay out for pre-return tests in order to be able to return to the UK.
Although the NHS lateral flow tests are CE-approved – meaning they meet certain safety and specification standards – travellers have to be supervised while taking them.
This is partly so people can receive official documentation stating the time the test was taken and the official result to show at the UK border on return. But it would potentially mean arranging for NHS workers to supervise people taking the tests over an online video call, something for which there are precious little resources.
It means families have been forced to look to private providers. British Airways offers a pre-return test which is supervised via an online video call for £39.
This would add more than £150 to the bill for a holiday for a family of four, or nearly £200 for a family of five if their children were aged 11 or over. Paying for a clinician in a foreign country to administer one could lead to an even bigger bill.
The cost of tests from private providers has fallen overall as more firms have entered the market. But of the more than 300 government-approved providers listed online the average overall price of a single PCR test is still more than £100.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, one of 17 MPs who signed a letter to Chancellor Rishi Sunak calling on him to scrap VAT on PCR tests, said the Government must deliver on its pledge to provide free pre-return testing devices which people could pack in their luggage to take with them. He said: ‘They need to come through with the free tests. There’s a desperate need for them to deliver on that promise for the British public and the airlines and airport operators.’
A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘We want to keep travel as safe as possible and lateral flow tests are widely available at low costs in most green list countries. We are seeing how we can further reduce costs by continuing to work with travel industry and private testing providers.’
We face a scramble to get all-clear
Property developer Simon Smith was yesterday scrambling around trying to find Covid tests in order to leave Portugal before UK quarantine rules kick in.
Mr Smith, from Stamford, Lincolnshire, visited five medical centres and a hospital to try to get his family tested.
He was with his wife and two children, aged two and four, at the family villa in the Lagos area when the Government announced it was moving the country on to the amber list.
The family has used the property only once since purchasing it last year and had flown to the Algarve to carry out preparatory work for guests.
Property developer Simon Smith was yesterday scrambling around trying to find Covid tests in order to leave Portugal before UK quarantine rules kick in
Instead, Mr Smith said the last day had been blighted by people calling to cancel their stays. He described the change in status as a ‘real kick in the teeth’. ‘There has just been no thought into it at all,’ he said.
‘I thought the whole idea of the green list was that they were going to monitor it and give people plenty of time and notice to get flights and sort out problems with testing.’ The family has managed to book flights out of Portugal this morning at 10am in the hope of beating the new rules.
But in order to leave, they first have to arrange Covid tests in Portugal.
The family has been told the airport has a small amount of tests available, so plan on turning up five hours early.
‘If we can’t get that, we can’t fly,’ said Mr Smith. ‘Then we’re going to be stuck here. I have meetings on Friday, I can’t afford ten days’ quarantine, it is a joke
Are holidays off the table? Grant Shapps refuses to confirm major destinations will be on the green list this summer due to the threat of Covid variants as he hints vaccines hold the key
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