PMQs: Johnson in a twist over travel rules

Boris Johnson and Sir Keir Starmer clashed over border controls at today’s PMQs, with the PM laying down the law on potential £10,000 fines for quarantine rulebreakers after the Labour leader said the government had lost control of its travel advice.

The heated exchange followed 24 hours of mixed messaging, in which two government ministers said holidays to “amber” list countries were acceptable, while another branded all holidays “dangerous”.

Tackling the issue on everyone’s mind, Starmer began his questioning by asking: “Does the Prime Minister agree that the single biggest threat to hitting the June 21 date for unlocking is the risk of new variants coming into the UK?”

Giving the strongest hint yet that the roadmap could remain on track, the PM said that he did think this was “one of the issues that we must face”, but that the government had looked at the data this morning and now had “increasing confidence” that current vaccines are effective against all variants.

He thanked the people who have been coming forward in record numbers for their jabs, saying that the numbers in Bolton alone had doubled. 

Starmer asked why, if new variants are “one of the biggest threats” to unlocking, did the Prime Minister choose to weaken travel restrictions by moving 170 countries or territories to the “amber” list on Monday?

The PM insisted that the UK has one of the “strongest border regimes” in the world and said that everybody should know that travelling to an “amber” list country for an “emergency or any extreme reason” involves paying for tests and self-isolating for 10 days.

He said that quarantine rules would be enforced for Britons returning from “amber” list countries and warned that people who failed to obey the quarantine could face fines of up to £10,000.

Asked again why he had made it easier for people to travel to countries on the “amber” list, Johnson said the government was trying to move away from “endlessly legislating” and instead towards relying on people to follow guidance and do the right thing. He repeated that people should only travel to “amber” list destinations for an “extreme circumstance” and that they should not be going on holiday to these countries.

Starmer hit back that since the government loosened travel restrictions, 150 flights a day were going to “amber” list destinations, and travel agents were reporting surges in holiday bookings to those countries. The PM responded that there had been a “95 per cent reduction in travel of any kind, to and from this country” and said that 70 per cent of adults in England had now been vaccinated – “enabling us to make the progress that we are”.

Advocating a batten down the hatches approach, Starmer called for “a proper system that could protect against the threat of future variants of the virus” and said: “We’re an island nation. We have the power to stop this”.

Having a dig at Labour’s disappointing local election results, Johnson said it would be “great” if Starmer used “what authority he possesses” to convey the government’s “amber” list policy to the rest of the country and insisted that Labour’s policy on borders was “hopelessly confused”. 

Taking a final stand on the issue with a reference to Dominic Cummings’ recent tweets, Starmer said: “The Prime Minister’s former advisor had this one right. He said the government’s border policy was a joke. Our borders have been wide open, pretty well throughout the pandemic.”

He added: “Flights are still coming in from India, and even as the variant is spreading, the Prime Minister decides now is the time to weaken the system even more – it’s ridiculous.”