Government “deeply irresponsible” on Covid border security, says Labour

Labour has accused the government of taking a “deeply irresponsible” approach to border security amid the coronavirus crisis after the Tories ignored a non-binding parliamentary vote on stricter controls.

The opposition day motion backing a “comprehensive” hotel quarantine system, which would apply to all UK arrivals rather than only those coming from a ‘red list’ of countries, was passed on Monday evening.

262 MPs were in favour and none voted against the Labour motion. Boris Johnson has started to instruct Conservatives to abstain on opposition day votes in the House of Commons, just as Theresa May did when in office.

Commenting on the result, Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said it was “deeply irresponsible for the government to not back Labour’s proposals to toughen up our defences against Covid variants”.

Highlighting new UK cases of the so-called South African strain, he added: “We are in a race against time and ministers are missing a vital chance to help shut the door on virus mutations that could have a devastating impact on people’s lives and the economy.”

Boris Johnson has so far only approved a plan to introduce hotel quarantine measures for travellers coming from 30 ‘high-risk’ countries. They will be required to self-isolate for ten days in specific accommodation.

It is thought that these travellers will have to pay for the period of quarantine at an estimated cost of around £1,500 per person. The new hotel quarantine system is expected to be up and running in several weeks’ time.

On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday morning, Thomas-Symonds said: “I would bring in the mandatory hotel quarantining for all arrivals. Of course, there would be exceptions to that, haulage for example.”

The Labour frontbencher argued that this was the best approach because “the threat to life and hope is a variant emerging that the vaccines that we have would be ineffective against” and “we cannot take that risk”.

The opposition party has highlighted reports that the scientific advisory group for emergencies (SAGE) advised the government that “geographically targeted travel bans” would not be sufficient to stop the arrival of new Covid strains.

According to The Times, scientists told the government that the only way to “get close” to preventing mutations from coming in to the UK was either to close the borders completely or bring in mandatory quarantine measures for all arrivals.

It has been reported that both Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, and Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, have privately argued for borders to be closed, but they were overruled by Johnson who favoured the ‘red list’ approach.

On the point that border closures with exemptions, as advocated by Labour, would not be a guarantee against new strains arriving, Thomas-Symonds said: “Nothing is 100% effective, of course, but we have to do everything that we possibly can.”

He stressed to the BBC that the advanced genome sequencing allowing the so-called South African variant to be identified is not available in every part of the world, which means other mutations could be missed.

Below is the Labour opposition day motion passed by the House of Commons.

Keir Starmer
Angela Rayner
Nick Thomas-Symonds
Jim McMahon
Holly Lynch
Nicholas Brown

That this House calls on the Government to immediately introduce a comprehensive hotel quarantine system for all arrivals into the UK, thereby securing the country against the import of new strains and maximising the effectiveness of the country’s vaccination programme; to publish the scientific evidence which informed the Government’s decision not to introduce a comprehensive hotel quarantine regime to flights from all countries; and to announce a sector support package for aviation focused on employment and environmental improvements.