Keir Starmer has called for Boris Johnson to ditch his “confused and contradictory” traffic light system for travel overseas.
The Labour leader accused the government of triggering a surge in holiday-makers with mixed messages over the rules on trips to “amber list” areas, which include most of the countries in the world.
After days in which ministers have contradicted one another over whether travel to amber list countries like France or Spain is permitted to visit friends or take holidays, Mr Johnson told the House of Commons that trips are allowed only in “extreme circumstances”.
Speaking at prime minister’s questions, Mr Johnson said: “You should not be going to an amber list country except for for in extreme circumstances, such as the serious illness of a family member. You should not go on holiday.”
But Sir Keir told him: “Yesterday morning the environment secretary said people could fly to amber list countries if they wanted to visit family or friends. By the afternoon a government health minister said nobody should travel outside Britain this year, becaiuse travelling is dangerous.
“The prime minister said that travel from a country should only be where it’s essential. By the evening, the Welsh Secretary suggested, some people might think a holiday is essential.
“The government’s lost control of the messaging.”
Sir Keir said that 170 countries had been placed on the amber list on Monday, removing the previous ban on travel and requiring people arriving from those destinations in England to quarantine at home, not at an airport hotel.
“If he doesn’t want people to travel to amber list countries, if that’s his position, why is he making it easier to do so?”
Sir Keir told MPs that since the trade restrictions were loosened on Monday, 150 flights have been going every day to amber list countries, with travel agents reporting “surges” in holiday bookings.
“This isn’t a coincidence,” he said. “It’s because of the messaging.”
And he told Mr Johnson: “We are an island nation. We have the power to stop this.
“Why doesn’t the prime minister drop this hopeless system, get control of our borders and introduce a proper system that can protect against the threat of future variants of the virus?”
Mr Johnson retorted that the Labour position on borders was “hopelessly confused”, accusing the party of wanting to “cut the whole country off from the rest of the world”.
But Starmer said Labour had been calling for “blanket hotel quarantine” for arrivals in England for months.
Denouncing the government’s policy on border control as “a joke”, the Labour leader said: “Our borders have been wide open pretty well throughout the pandemic.
“There was no hotel quarantine system in place until February this year. Flights are still coming in from India. And even as the variant is spreading, the prime minister decides now is the time to weaken the system even more.
“It’s ridiculous.”
The prime minister said the UK has “one of the strongest border regimes anywhere in the world”, with 43 countries on the red list, requiring arrivals in England to quarantine in an airport hotel.
He added: “If you travel to an amber list country for any emergency, any extreme reason that you have to, when you come back, you not only have to pay for all the tests but you have to self-isolate for 10 days – we will invigilate, we are invigilating it, and people who fail to obey the quarantine can face fines of up to £10,000.”
