Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said he is “hopeful” that people will be able to travel abroad this summer but warned there were no “cast iron guarantees”.
Mr Shapps said that under Boris Johnson's roadmap out of coronavirus restrictions in England, the earliest people would be able to travel overseas was May 17 but he urged caution when it came to booking.
“We know you won’t be able to travel until May 17. I would say that it makes sense to see how the course of the pandemic unlock proceeds,” he told Times Radio.
“I am hopeful but, as with everything to do with this virus, you can’t say for certain.
“There are a lot of issues that we need to work around but I am working with international partners, both governments and organisations, to try to make it happen. We can’t provide cast iron guarantees on it.”
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There has been confusion over holidays as the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, has expressed his hopes "for a great British summer" as he's already booked a holiday in Cornwall for his family.
Speaking on March 1, England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said there was still “great uncertainty” around holidays on the continent – partly because the European Union’s vaccination programmes were behind the UK’s.
Prof Van-Tam struck a cautious tone about foreign travel, saying: “We are still in a zone of great uncertainty about what the virus will do next.
“On top of that, many of the vaccination programmes in Europe – which is a place where we frequently go on holiday abroad – are running behind ours.
“Clearly, whether we can go on holiday abroad to places such as Europe depends on what other countries will say and do in terms of foreign tourism.
“There has to be great uncertainty at the moment.”
