Grant Shapps defends ‘traffic light’ changes against travel industry criticism

As thousands of holidaymakers scramble to find seats back from Mexico, the transport secretary has said: “I hope people will be able to go away and enjoy their breaks and not be looking over their shoulders the whole time.”

Grant Shapps was speaking to BBC Today after announcing the latest round of “traffic light” changes, which take effect at 4am on Sunday 8 August.

While Mexico was placed on the “red list,” requiring hotel quarantine, India, the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain were moved to the “amber list” – meaning fully vaccinated travellers need not self-isolate on return to the UK.

France, from which mandatory quarantine is currently required, will also rejoin the amber list – after what a Brittany Ferries spokesperson called “the government’s shambolic and baseless implementation of self-quarantine for homecoming travellers”.

Mr Shapps said the France “amber plus” status was due to “very close links” between the Indian Ocean island of Réunion, which had high levels of the Beta variant, and mainland France – with a “spillover infection into the north of France”.

Réunion is currently rated amber, with no quarantine required for arrivals to the UK, but will move to the red list on Sunday.

The transport secretary said: “What we want to do is to make sure people can travel as safely as possible.

“This summer we are able to set out a three-week programme rather than a one-week programme which was the situation last year.”

But Mark Tanzer, chief executive of Abta, the travel association, said: “The opening up of international travel from the UK is progressing at a snail’s pace – making it extremely difficult for travel agents and tour operators to generate enough income to kickstart a recovery, which is desperately needed to protect jobs, businesses and livelihoods.”

The British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) has added to the chorus of criticism from the travel industry.

The acting general secretary of the pilots’ union, Martin Chalk, said: “UK bookings compared to those in Europe are dismal and key markets remain shut, despite ironically named ‘taskforces’, demonstrating that aviation remains the only industry still effectively in lockdown.

“The profitable summer season is almost gone, and the aviation workforce, including pilots, are being asked to shoulder the responsibility of government incoherence and inaction.”

Mr Shapps said: “I wish people could travel freely.” But he predicted: “Double vaccination or full vaccination will be a feature for ever more.”

The transport secretary raised eyebrows among travel companies by asserting: “Virtually everyone is already taking a PCR test” when coming back from Spain.

All returning travellers must take a test-to-fly before being allowed to board a plane home, and the transport secretary is urging arrivals from Spain only to use PCRs.

Because quick and cheap lateral flow tests are permitted, it was thought that most holidaymakers would opt for them rather than the expensive and slow PCR option.

In fact, Mr Shapps said, nine out of 10 British people returning from Spain opt for PCR tests.