‘Confusing and dangerous’ amber list should be scrapped, say Labour

Traveling overseas, particularly to countries where new variants are emerging, is ‘wrong thing to do’, says shadow foreign secretary

Labour’s Lisa Nandy has called the government’s traffic light rating system for travel “confusing” and “dangerous” and urged ministers to scrap the amber designation.

On the BBC’s Andew Marr Show on Sunday morning, the shadow foreign secretary said: “I think we’ve got a real, real problem with the travel system that the government has put in place.

“We’ve currently got countries on the amber list which the government is basically urging people not to go to but allowing people to go to with very lax quarantine requirements when they come back.

“We think the amber list should be scrapped. We think it’s pointless. We think it’s confusing and that confusion is actually dangerous at the moment.”

She added that the current list risked “unravelling all of the progress” that had been made against coronavirus to date.

When asked if people returning from holidays in France should have to quarantine upon their return to the UK, Ms Nandy did not provide an explicit answer. “I think that we should have robust quarantine measures in place for people coming back into the country. That’s absolutely right.”

She added that clearer messaging was needed around travel to countries where new variants were rapidly emerging.

“Travelling overseas, particularly when you’ve got countries like Thailand and Vietnam on the amber list where new variants are emerging and being imported into the UK, is the wrong thing to do, and the government ought to be absolutely clear about that,” she said.

The traffic light system that Ms Nandy was criticising was introduced on 17 May, with reviews on the countries on each list taking place every three weeks.

There are currently 11 countries on the green list, where holidaymakers can return from without having to quarantine, however entry into many of these countries is impossible for most Britons due to local restrictions.

Portugal was the only mainstream European holiday destination on the amber list, until Thursday when the government announced it was announced that it would be moved to the amber list, citing fears about rising Covid cases and a mutation of the Delta variant

Talking about the decision to downgrade Portugal, transport secretary Grant Schapps said that he and his cabinet colleagues “simply don’t want to take the risk” of mutated variants evading vaccine protection ahead of the planned lifting of all coronavirus restrictions in England on 21 June.

There are more than 160 destinations on the amber list, which includes most of Europe, North America and Asian countries where new variants have been found, like Thailand and Vietnam. Although travel is permitted to these countries, travellers are required to quarantine at home for 10 days following their return, and take two PCR tests to confirm their Covid-negative status.

There has been confusion over leisure travel to amber list countries. During a recent prime ministers’ questions, Boris Johnson said: “It is very, very clear – you should not be going to an ‘amber list’ country except for some extreme circumstance, such as the serious illness of a family member. You should not be going to an ‘amber list’ country on holiday.”

Yet travellers are allowed to travel to amber list destinations without proof of an essential reason, and some holiday companies are offering holidays to amber list countries.

No new countries were added to the green list in the first review of the traffic light system, but seven were added to the red list, including Egypt and Costa Rica. Travellers returning from any of the 50 red list countries are required to quarantine for 11 nights in a hotel at a cost of £1750.

According to Mr Schapps, red list countries “should not be visited except in the most extreme of circumstances”.

The next update to the traffic light system is expected around 24 June.