Cabinet minister advises people to ‘holiday at home’ and travel abroad only if ‘absolutely necessary’

A cabinet minister has insisted people should not travel abroad unless “absolutely necessary” and advised people to “holiday at home” this summer, as thousands of travellers rushed to get back from Portugal to avoid quarantining.

The environment secretary George Eustice, who said he would be holidaying in Cornwall this summer, stressed that travellers must be aware of the “risks” in deciding to travel abroad in the near future.

As sun-seekers dashed backed from Portugal ahead of the country being added to the amber list — requiring a 10-day mandatory quarantine on return to Britain — Mr Eustice suggested most people would “probably decide this year to stay at home”.

Quizzed on Sky News whether it would best for people to go on domestic holidays this year, the senior minister pointed out there were now “very few” countries on the green list, as he suggested: “Our advice all along has been don’t travel unless it’s absolutely necessary”.

“Obviously we had hoped, with these three categories that we had, we had hoped the situation would be improving in other parts of the world, that we’d be able to progressively add other countries to the green list,” he added.

“Sadly, that’s not the situation, we do have this variant of concern first identified in India that is now cropping up in other countries, and we’ve just got to take a very cautious approach.

“The most important thing is that we can continue to open up our own economy — get back to life as normal here. The biggest threat to that is that we would have a variant come from another country that would find a way of getting around the vaccine. That’s the biggest threat to us at the moment — that’s why we should be really cautious”.

Under the government’s traffic light system for holidays overseas, which will updated at three-week intervals, the guidance makes clear people should not travel to countries or territories in areas placed on either the amber or red list territories.

People are permitted to travel to countries on the green list — if they test negative for Covid-19 — but given the decision last week to remove Portugal from the list, the only remaining popular European destination, options are limited.

Asked whether people should risk travelling to a country on the government’s green list, Mr Eustice replied: “Look, people will make their own individual judgements on this.

“I will be staying at home, I have no intention of travelling or going on holiday abroad this summer,” he added.

“Some people may but they have to understand there are risks in doing so because it is a dynamic situation, but I think most people will probably decide this year to stay at home, holiday at home — we’ve got some fabulous places to visit in this part of the country, not least of course Cornwall, although it’ll be a very, very busy summer I’m sure.”

Pressed on whether it was the right thing to do, he said: “My advice would for people would be holiday at home, we’ve got some great places here.

“But obviously some people will want to travel abroad, there are still a small number of countries on that green list, if they wanted to do that they can, but obviously they’ll have to understand that there are risks in doing so as well.”