UK quarantine for travellers to now include French arrivals

Downing Street has rolled back on the idea of exempting travellers from France from incoming quarantine rules, with only freight drivers and experts working on anti-Covid-19 efforts being able to avoid the 14-day isolation period.

Boris Johnson used his TV address last Sunday to announce that quarantine restrictions would soon be imposed on people entering the UK, but only mentioned those arriving by air. It later became clear that the rules would also apply to arrivals by road, rail and sea.

Later on Sunday, after a call between Johnson and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, Downing Street said “no quarantine measures would apply to travellers coming from France at this stage”.

Asked about it on Friday, however, Johnson’s spokesman said: “There isn’t a French exemption. What the statement at the weekend said was they were quoting measures applied to France [at that stage], and that was a joint statement between ourselves and the French.”

Johnson’s spokesman pointed to the fact that the joint statement on Sunday said that the UK and France had set up a working group on the issue of border crossings.

“What it went on to say is that we would be working with the French in the coming weeks because cooperation is particularly necessary for the management of our common border, and any steps that we do take would be implemented in a concerted and reciprocal manner,” he said.

The joint statement had prompted some confusion in France where, the week before the health minister, Olivier Véran, said a 14-day quarantine period would be imposed on everyone arriving in France.

On Thursday, the UK transport secretary, Grant Shapps, also rowed back on the idea, saying that it “seems fair and right that if we are asking the British people to stay at home and make such huge sacrifices in their own lives, then we would expect anybody coming back to the country, or visiting the country, to do the same thing, with some limited exceptions”.

It is understood that freight drivers coming from or via France will be exempt, because forcing them into quarantine for two weeks would disrupt supplies of food, medicine and other goods.

The working group, led on the UK side by Michael Gove, who has the cabinet title of chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, is looking into ways this could happen while also allowing UK freight drivers the same exemption in France, perhaps with the use of Covid-19 testing.

The other exempt group will be scientists and others working in areas connected to combating coronavirus, such as vaccine research. It is not yet known whether their exemption would apply to air travel into the UK as well as rail and sea routes from France.

The government has faced increasing pressure to quarantine people arriving in the country, and has decided to act to try to prevent a new wave of infections as elements of the national lockdown are eased. The quarantine rules are expected to begin at the end of the month.

The decision has angered the aviation industry, which says it could worsen the economic impact of the virus. The chief executives of easyJet, and Heathrow and Gatwick airports have signed a letter to the government expressing “collective and serious concern and frustration”, and demanding a meeting with Johnson. The wider travel industry has also expressed concern.