Government stands its ground as pressure mounts on border policy

Saturday, 03 Feb, 2021 0

The Government has again been forced to defend its controversial position on border controls with Transport Secretary Grant Shapps insisting a complete shutdown was not practical.

Appearing at a Commons transport select committee today, Shapps said the UK, as an island nation, must remain at least partially open to allow imports into the country.

That extended to medicine and food, and to the flow of professional people, including scientists, who are essential to the UK, he said.

The Government has been coming under mounting pressure to widen its travel ban beyond the 33 countries currently on the red list.

Earlier today, Labour leader Keir Starmer pressed Boris Johnson on the issue during Prime Minister’s Question Time, while reports emerged that scientists had warned the Government that a complete border closure was the best way to limit the import of Covid variants.

Shapps, quoted by The Guardian, said: "What tends to happen is people say, well, why don’t we just close down and then we’ll be safe?

"But, of course, we wouldn’t be safe, because we are an island nation unlike … Australia or something which is an entire continent – and that means that we need to get medicines in, we need to get food in, we need to get our raw materials in, sometimes we have to move people around, scientists and others.

"And if we weren’t doing these things then we simply wouldn’t be combating this crisis.

"In fact … specifically we wouldn’t have had things like the medicines that we’ve needed or indeed the vaccinations, some of which are manufactured in Europe."

The World Travel and Tourism Council also waded into the debate, warning against a widespread shutdown of UK borders.

WTTC President and Chief Executive Gloria Guevara argued it has long opposed ‘costly and ineffective blanket travel bans and quarantines’.

"They are stalling the country’s economic recovery and significantly slowing the revival of the global travel and tourism sector," Guevera said.

"Shutdowns are also shown to be entirely counterproductive and simply don’t stop the spread of Covid-19, and its emerging variants."

Meanwhile, the start date for hotel quarantine remains unclear, with Health Secretary Matt Hancock refusing to even confirm it would be up and running by the end of the month.

"We’ll set out more details of that when we’re ready to, but … you’ve seen that we’re perfectly prepared to take very tough action if that’s what’s needed," he said.

According to reports, a start date for the quarantine hotels had been earmarked for 15 February.

Asked whether that date was correct, Hancock replied: "Well, let’s see where we get to."