Boris Johnson said there is “increasing confidence” vaccines are effective against all coronavirus variants, including the Indian strain.
He told MPs: “We’ve looked at the data again this morning and I can tell the House we have increasing confidence that vaccines are effective against all variants, including the Indian variant.”
But speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions the Tory leader couldn’t say how many people are arriving in the UK from amber list countries every day, as the chaos surrounding his travel policy deepened.
Labour leader Keir Starmer said the government had been wrong to “weaken travel restrictions” given the threat from new variants.
Starmer told the PM that travel agents had reported a surge in Brits booking holidays to amber list countries as a result of mixed messages from Ministers on the green, amber and red lists for international travel.
Johnson has said countries on the amber list are “not somewhere where you should be going on holiday”.
But environment secretary George Eustice said people could go to amber-listed countries as long as they observed quarantine rules on their return.
Starmer asked Johnson if the single biggest threat to hitting the June 21 unlocking date is the risk of new variants entering the UK why travel restrictions were relaxed?
Starmer asked: “In those circumstances, why on Monday did the Prime Minister choose to weaken travel restrictions by moving 170 countries or territories to the amber list?”
He told Johnson: “We are an island nation - we have the power to stop this.”
Johnson insisted the position was “very clear” and people should only travel to an amber list country “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,” the Prime Minister told MPs.
The Prime Minister claimed there had been a 95 per cent reduction in overall travel to the UK, but couldn’t answer how many are travelling to and from amber list countries each day.
But Johnson tried to swerve Labour’s call for a crackdown on arrivals at airports by claiming it would prevent food and other supplies arriving in the country, which it would not.
Meanwhile the Scottish Government has announced a “vaccine passport” scheme for Scots to show confirmation they have had the vaccine on travelling abroad.
Scots can download their vaccination status letter from the NHS Inform or call the free Covid Status Helpline and ask for it to be posted out.
Chief medical officer Dr Gregor Smith urged limiting travel abroad and advised avoiding overseas holidays.
He said: “For those that do need it, this new service will provide people with a record of their vaccination status for outbound international travel.
“They should only access their record if they are planning to travel within 21 days and it is a requirement of their destination.”
People in England are able to use an NHS app to display proof of their vaccination status.
The move comes as EU ambassadors backed plans to allow vaccinated UK holidaymakers to visit the bloc this summer.
They recommended at a meeting on Wednesday that rules should be changed to allow non-essential visits into the EU by people who have had the full course of doses.
The policy will need to be formally signed off by ministers of member states.
Portugal and Greece are among the EU countries that have broken ranks by already welcoming UK tourists, but the addition of the UK to the “safe list” would boost the chances of a major summer getaway.
