Grant Shapps admits 'confusion' for holidaymakers over UK split on Portugal quarantine

A Cabinet minister admitted to “confusion” for holidaymakers after Scotland and Wales put Portugal on their quarantine list but England and Northern Ireland did not do so.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps defended the decision by the Government at Westminster to keep allowing people to return to England from the Algarve and other parts of Portugal without having to self-isolate for 14 days.

He said Portugal was on the “border” line for going on the list and ministers have made clear that quarantine could be swiftly re-imposed if the Covid-19 situation there worsens.

He stressed that dealing with coronavirus in the UK was a devolved matter.

“It’s a bit like the decisions on the lockdowns and the way the rules are being applied throughout the different parts of the UK,” he told Sky News.

“You are quite accustomed to seeing, for example, Scotland do one thing and say you can meet with so many people and Wales do another and so on and so forth.

“The travel corridors are similar to that and I do realise that it creates confusion for people not to have a single rule but we do have this devolved approach throughout the UK.

“I can only be responsible for the English part of that.”

The Joint Biosecurity Centre in Whitehall use a number of different measures to assess the Covid situation in other countries, he explained.

“It’s not just the number of cases per 100,000 that counts but also the positivity rate, how many of those cases are testing positive, and also how the Government in that country is dealing with it, whether it’s a local outbreak and many other factors,” he said.

“This week has led to no changes, partly because of the test positivity for example in Portugal actually came down on the last set of figures when we were making this choice.”

He emphasised that if a country does a lot of testing, using only the 100,000 measure would mean they could be unfairly put on the quarantine list.

Some holidaymakers, though, had paid hundreds of pounds to fly home early from Portugal to avoid expected quarantine after a spike in Covid-19 cases.

There were 23 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in Portugal in the seven days to Wednesday, up from 15.3 a week earlier.

A seven-day rate of 20 is a threshold above which the UK Government has considered triggering quarantine conditions.

The Government was also under pressure to reimpose quarantine rules on arrivals from Greece after Scotland and Wales introduced restrictions in recent days.

But Mr Shapps announced yesterday that there were no changes to the Government’s list, though he said he would not “hesitate to remove countries if needed”.

Kelly Jones and her family changed their flights home from the Algarve from Saturday to Friday at a cost of £900 to avoid a potential quarantine because she did not want her children to miss out on two weeks of school.

The 45-year-old from Birmingham said the situation was “absolutely disgusting”, added: “The Government just change the goalposts left, right and centre at the moment. It’s embarrassing.”

Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said: “The quarantine policy is in tatters and dividing the United Kingdom.

“Consumers are totally confused by the different approaches and it’s impossible to understand the Government’s own criteria anymore on when to add or remove a country.”

Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, said: “Days of speculation around this announcement meant many people rushed to pay extortionate prices for flights back to England to avoid having to quarantine on their return - only to now find out there was no need.

“If the Government is serious about letting international travel resume while prioritising public health, a major reassessment of its approach is needed.”

The Welsh Government last night revealed that it would remove the exemption from the 14-day self-isolation requirement for travellers returning from Portugal, Gibraltar and seven Greek islands. The new rule came into force at 4am on Friday.

The Scottish Government has said passengers arriving from Portugal would have to quarantine from 4am on Saturday, as well as those arriving from French Polynesia.

Scotland began requiring travellers from anywhere in Greece to enter quarantine from Thursday.

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