LONDON - Plans to quarantine travellers coming into Britain were falling apart last night as they came under fire from all sides.
Border Force and police officials say the system is ‘unenforceable’ and MPs, including Boris Johnson’s former adviser, warned the scheme would ‘hang the Closed sign on Britain’.
Those set to enforce the plans are yet to be told how to do so – and there were calls for the evidence that it will work to be made public.
Officials behind the project were accused of ‘making it up as they go along’, while Whitehall sources said travellers would simply be ‘trusted’ to follow the rules.
Those with upcoming medical treatments – as well as gas fitters, electricians and sewage workers – could be exempt under a raft of ‘absurd’ loopholes, and Border Force officials have yet to be told who to check or how. Those using electronic passport gates are unlikely to be quizzed.
Andrew Griffith, a former chief business adviser to Mr Johnson and now MP for Arundel and South Downs, said: ‘A blanket quarantine hangs the Closed sign on Britain just as competitor nations lift their travel restrictions.
Andrew Griffith, a former chief business adviser to Mr Johnson and now MP for Arundel and South Downs, said: ‘A blanket quarantine hangs the Closed sign on Britain just as competitor nations lift their travel restrictions.
‘It is unscientific to apply it to countries with a lower rate of infection than our own – if a plane full of passengers from Iceland lands in the UK it would actually lower the average infection rate – and it is devastating for the wider economy.(FA)
