FOREIGN summer holidays for Brits will be cancelled this year thanks to coronavirus, Matt Hancock said today.
The Health Secretary told ITV’s This Morning that the public likely won’t be able to go out of the country for a getaway for the remainder of the summer.
Mr Hancock was asked by Phil and Holly whether summer would be cancelled.
And he replied: “I think that’s likely to be the case.
“I think it’s unlikely that big lavish international holidays are going to be possible for this summer.”
The news comes as:
- The Chancellor today expected to extend Britain’s furlough scheme for paying people’s wages – but may cut the funding back
- Ministers revealed how the workplace is going to change under new health and safety rules for lifting the lockdown
- Ryanair said it would restart some of its flights from July
But he wasn’t specific about whether it will mean Brits can take a stay-cation in the UK yet.
At the moment all non-essential travel is cancelled – whether that’s within the UK or abroad.
Only people who absolutely have to be travelling should be.
And hotels and holiday parks are shut in the UK until at least July, the Government confirmed yesterday, meaning no trips are on the cards for now.
The Foreign Office has extended this advice to be “indefinitely” with no end in sight for when the public may be able to travel once again.
The news comes just hours after it was announced that travellers to Spain would face a 14 day quarantine coming into the country.
The order comes into force this Friday, May 15 and will remain during the State of Emergency and its possible extensions into at least June and beyond.
It means anyone who could get to Spain would have to isolate for two weeks anyway.
And earlier this week Boris Johnson announced that anyone coming into the UK would do the same.
It means that Brits may have to take four weeks off if they were to take a two-week trip abroad, leaving many thinking whether they will even bother,
However, the PM and French President Macron are working on a deal which would mean the two countries can have a “travel corridor” and the public may be allowed to travel between the two countries in future.
At the moment any quarantine won’t apply to people coming from France to the UK, and vice-versa.
But it will be dependent on the UK and France maintaining a similar ‘R’ rate of virus contagion, as well as a descending number of cases.
A senior government source told The Sun: “There is a lot of work to be done yet, but the PM and the President both believe a travel corridor is possible, and desirable.”
The news will give hope that the public may be able to go on a break to France in the coming months instead, but Matt Hancock’s words this morning mean the situation is far from clear.
The news will give hope that the public may be able to go on a break to France in the coming months instead, but Matt Hancock’s words this morning mean the situation is far from clear.
Entry into France is still heavily restricted until at least June 15, after Mr Macron extended the need for all visitors to the country to fill out a form stating their reason for travel.
Ireland is also excluded from the rules as it’s part of the common travel area, but it’s not yet known if Brits will be able to hop over for some time away there either.
The EU Commission will today unveil a new strategy for getting travelling up and running again as the continent emerges from the crisis.
In the same interview this morning, Mr Hancock also revealed that people may have to wait until a vaccine is found before they can hug each other again.
And Phil and Holly took him apart for the Government’s “bonkers” policy which meant it was OK to see one parent at a time – but not both.
Comments