Confusion over summer international travel “unforgivable”, Starmer says

Keir Starmer has accused the government of creating a situation of “chaos” over international travel by failing to prepare for people trying to go abroad this summer, describing the confusion as “pretty unforgivable”.

In an interview with Sky News this afternoon, during a two-day trip to Scotland, the Labour leader highlighted conflicting messages from government, saying: “We’ve had a changing system, changing colours, U-turns left, right and centre.”

Ministers announced this morning that fully vaccinated travellers returning from France would no longer need to quarantine, and ditched much-criticised plans for a ‘watchlist’ of amber countries such as Spain.

The government has said holidaymakers coming back from Spain, including those currently in the country, are advised to take a PCR test as their pre-departure test, instead of a lateral flow test – despite no change to its amber list status.

Conservative MP Huw Merriman, chairman of the Commons transport select committee, criticised the updated advice issued today, saying the “expensive” PCR tests for travel are an “unnecessary rip-off” and a “barrier to affordable travel”.

“We’ve [Labour] been saying since the beginning of the summer: have a simplified system. We may be edging towards it and I feel very strongly for those families and I hope that that helps them going forward,” Starmer told viewers this morning.

“But the big question I have for the government is why on earth have we had to go through this chaos to get there? And it’s not the first time. Last summer, we had the chaos of the exams. At Christmas, we had the chaos of the Christmas mixing and now we’ve had the summer of chaos about travels and holidays.

“Every time there’s a predictable problem, the government goes through a wall of chaos before it begins to sort it out.”

Asked whether he would scrap the advice for individuals coming from Spain to take a PCR test before travelling, the Labour leader said: “I don’t want to interfere with the scheme in place and we do need some tests coming back from Spain.”

Starmer said people did not “object necessarily to the tests”, but to the changing guidance and messaging on requirements for travel. “One day they’ve got to do something, next day they’ve got to do something else,” he added.

“They don’t know when they’re booking their holiday and when they’re trying to get back what they’ve got to comply with and all they’ve asked for is what we’ve asked for; a simple, understandable system that puts in place sensible controls for those that are going on holiday.

“That is something that could have been predicted six months ago and to have got here in the middle of August, or the early part of August, in this chaos is pretty unforgivable for the British government.”

The Labour leader told viewers that he would be holidaying in the UK this year, but did not urge others to do the same. “I’m not going to sit here and tell people where they should holiday,” Starmer said today.

“If people want to travel abroad, at least give them the support that they need so that they know what system they’re operating to, they know what checks they’ve got to take and they can plan accordingly. It isn’t rocket science and this should have been thought through long, long before now.”

Ministers expanded the green list, from which all travellers can return without having to quarantine, this morning from 29 countries and territories to 36. Germany, Austria and Norway are among seven nations added to the list.

India, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE have moved from the red list to the amber list, while Georgia, Mexico, La Reunion and Mayotte have been added to the red list, which requires travellers to quarantine in a hotel.

The government has also announced that the cost of staying at one of those hotels is increasing, with the price for single adult travellers rising from £1,750 to £2,285 from August 12th, with a second adult paying £1,430.

Asked about the advice on PCR tests for arrivals from Spain, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that ministers were “not asking people to do anything different from what’s been happening in Spain”.

He insisted the government was “not changing the rules” because in Spain’s case “virtually everyone is taking a PCR” to meet the government’s standards for the pre-departure test. He added that PCR tests help scientists monitor variants.