Grant Shapps rejected the calls of Labour and Government scientists to institute pre-departure coronavirus screening for UK arrivals.
According to the Transport Secretary, ministers are not going to want unnecessarily to ‘kill off’ the travel sector.
He said that the Government had presented a “calibrated reply” to Omicron Covid’s new variant, but it didn’t go back to the beginning.
Shapps said that vaccine passports would be the “norm” for international travel in future.
Grant Shapps rejected the calls of Labour and Government scientists to institute pre-departure coronavirus screening for UK arrivals
According to the Transport Secretary, ministers are not going to unnecessarily kill off’ the travel sector.
All UK citizens arriving in the UK must take a PCR test within the first 24 hours of their arrival. Travellers should self-isolate up to the point they are negative.
Boris Johnson, however, is being pressured to tighten testing to protect Omicron import cases.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, (SAGE), leaked papers that suggested it would be ‘valuable to test people for Covid’ before they go to the UK.
BBC obtained the documents and stated that Government policies of testing immigrants in two days after their arrival would lead to fewer cases than if additional tests were performed days five, eight, or nine.
This advice was included in the minutes of Monday’s meeting of scientists. Labour has taken it up and called for predeparture testing for all those coming to the UK.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said it was a ‘totally unacceptable’ that ministers fail to respond to the crisis at the frontier, when their advisors have told them to implement pre-departure testing.
When Mr Shapps was asked the question, he rejected pre-departure testing.
The Transport Secretary said: ‘Lots of countries do require if you are going to them for pre-testing. This is not something we require at the moment.
‘I heard the Leader of the Opposition calling for that from the despatch box at Prime Minister’s Questions this week.
‘Do you want to kill off the travel sector again, without knowing that you need to? Do you prefer to get the right response?
Shadow home secretary Yvette (pictured right second) declared that it was ‘totally unacceptable’ that ministers fail to respond to the crisis at the frontier, when their advisors have told them to implement pre-departure checks.
‘And this Government thinks we should take a calibrated response which doesn’t take us right back to the beginning of this.’
After three weeks, the Government pledged that it would review any curbs placed to stop Omicron spreading.
Also, Mr Shapps was asked whether people who have not been vaccinated will find their lives more difficult due to vaccine requirements.
He replied: ‘Not to be awkward to those people but actually to protect everybody else, I think it is just inevitable that the norm for travel globally is going to be “have you been vaccinated” in the same way as for many years if you wanted to go to certain countries you can’t go without a yellow fever certificate passport.’