Portugal should not have been put on green list by UK government to begin with, Mark Drakeford suggests

‘Truthfully, we would not have put Portugal on to the green list three weeks ago,’ says first minister

Welsh first minister Mark Drakeford has suggested Portugal should not have been put on the travel green list last month, suggesting the country “only marginally” qualified for the designation.

His remarks come as the UK government defended the decision to remove the only mainstream holiday country from the destinations individuals can travel to without the need to quarantine upon return.

There is also increasing concern among scientists surrounding the government’s ability to remove all remaining domestic Covid restrictions on 21 June, with cases of infections rising and a higher transmissibility of the new Delta variant first identified in India.

Mr Drakeford said it was the “right decision” for the UK government to remove Portugal from the green list, which permits people to travel for leisure, to stop cases of the virus being imported back into the country.

But when pressed on whether the decision was taken soon enough, the first minister told Sky News: “We would always take a more precautionary approach here in Wales.

“Truthfully, we would not have put Portugal on to the green list three weeks ago and I think it’s always important that the first lens we look at these things through should be keeping people in Wales and the United Kingdom safe,” he added.

Mr Drakeford also told the Press Association that while the figures in the middle of May showed that Portugal was in a position to be on the green list for approved travel, “it was only marginally so”.

He said: “I would have waited a bit longer to see whether that position was strengthening so that you can be confident that it would be on the green list, or whether because it was so close to the margin things could have moved against it being on the green list.

“Now things have deteriorated in Portugal I know that will be a very significant challenge now for people who are already on holiday there to face quarantining when they return”.

Amid intense criticism from the overseas travel industry that only restarted legally 18 days ago when the blanket ban on holidays was dropped, cabinet ministers said that while they recognised the decision was “frustrating” the decision to remove Portugal was necessary.

Communities secretary Robert Jenrick insisted on Friday that Covid positivity rates in the country had “doubled” in the last three weeks, as he reiterated concerns from the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, of “growing evidence of a further mutation being called the Nepal mutation”.

“I completely understand how frustrating this is both for people in Portugal, and for millions of people here who would love to go on holiday abroad this summer,” Mr Jenrick added.

“We were also clear that if you choose to go on holiday to countries on the green list, those countries are being reviewed every three weeks, and so there was always a risk with a fast-moving situation with new variants that countries might either go on to that list, or indeed come off.

“That’s what’s happened here and I hope that people will understand - hard though this is - that we do need to take a cautious approach because people have made such progress in recent weeks and months.”

Meanwhile Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon stressed that none of the decisions on travel were “straight-forward”, and repeated a message she has previously given, saying: “I’ve been very clear whatever the red, amber green list categorisations say, if you don’t have to travel abroad right now don’t do it because it’s safer not to, safer for yourself, safer for the country not too”.