By Ben Kerrigan-
People wishing to travel out of the UK must first, declare their reason for travel, and prove it is essential, the home secretary has said.
Priti Patel (pictured)said declarations would be checked by carriers and there would be increased police at airports and ports. The announcements comes 24 hours after the UK was reported to have exceeded the highest death toll in Europe in reaching 104,000 deaths associated with Covid-19.
Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said protecting the UK’s borders was one of the key areas where the government had fallen short of expectations, a she described the move as too little too late.
He added proposals to limit hotel quarantine to the specific “red list” of countries did “not go anywhere near far enough”, saying the measures left “huge gaps” in the UK’s defences against emerging variants of the virus.
The data also shows that up to and including 26 January, more than seven million people have received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
In a statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday, Ms Patel said England’s lockdown rules were “clear] people should be staying at home unless they have a valid reason to leave. Going on holiday is not a valid reason,” she said.
Ms Patel said the new rule would require people wishing to leave the UK to go abroad to first “make a declaration for why they need to travel”, which would then be “checked by carriers prior to departure”.
Ms Patel said: “Anyone who doesn’t have a valid reason for travel will be directed to return home or they will face a fine.
Ms Patel said it was “clear that there are still too many people coming in and out of our country each day” and other border measures would be toughened up to “reduce passenger flow” and protect the UK’s “world-leading” vaccination programme.
The UK will continue to refuse entry to non-UK citizens from “red list” countries which were already subject to the travel ban.
She said the list of travel exemptions would also be “urgently” reviewed, she added, to make sure “only the most important and with exceptional reasons are included”.