Party is demanding hotel quarantine system be tightened up to avoid new Covid variants coming to BritainLabour has said it is “completely outrageous” that up to 8,000 tourists may be arriving in Britain every day and demanded the government tighten up its hotel quarantine system to avoid new coronavirus variants being brought into the country.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, said ministers were not doing enough to secure the borders after the Times reported the statistic, as well as other figures including that as many as 90% of arrivals at Gatwick airport are tourists.
The government is under pressure to clarify whether the figures are correct.
Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP and chair of the Commons home affairs select committee, said the findings raised “serious concerns” and added that the Home Office “needs to urgently respond, explain and publish these figures”.
David Lammy, the shadow justice secretary, said it was “staggering” many tourists were still being allowed into the UK, despite most international travel outside the country being banned and the prospect of a ”traffic light” system to help it resume not coming into force for several months.
“I’m not one for ‘let’s close the borders’ but you can’t have a situation where later on today Boris Johnson is announcing a sort of red, amber, green system for those of us who are thinking about a summer holiday, and then we find out that the whole world and their aunt can come in, breeze into Britain,” he told LBC radio.
“Where is the hotel quarantine for these people? Nowhere. Where is [the home secretary] Priti Patel by the way? She’s so good at hiding from the media and not explaining this system.”