MPs demand Covid testing replaces travel quarantine

‘It is patently clear that many people are not following the self-isolation rules,’ says former transport secretary, Chris Grayling

Testing times: a passenger booked on United Airlines flight 14 from New York to London (United Airlines)

In a debate about the future of air travel, the Tory chair of the Transport Select Committee has revealed what he calls "a spreadsheet of shame for the government”.

Speaking at the Westminster Hall debate, Huw Merriman said that the document, supplied by an aviation company, “showed 30 countries that have already delivered testing, either before the passenger reaches the airport that they are going to transfer to, or once they have arrived”.

Mr Merriman, who is MP for Bexhill and Battle, said: “If those other countries can demonstrate, with science, that that can be done safely, why on earth can the UK not do the same thing, when we have been the leaders and pioneers in aviation?

“Let us unlock our skies again.”

Quarantine rules, which require 14 days of self-isolation for arriving travellers from almost anywhere in the world, have diminished demand for travel to and from the UK since they were imposed in June. In addition, under the lockdown rules for England, no leisure travel is permitted until 3 December at the earliest.

In September the government announced a Global Travel Taskforce charged with “considering how a testing regime for international arrivals could be implemented to boost safe travel to and from the UK”. It is chaired by the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, and the health secretary, Matt Hancock.

Mr Shapps had said the taskforce would report to No 10 by early November.

The aviation minister, Robert Courts, confirmed that the Global Travel Taskforce has not yet submitted its recommendations to No 10. He said: “I want to inform everybody that the taskforce will report back to the prime minister very soon.”

Another Sussex Tory MP, Henry Smith, whose Crawley constituency includes Gatwick airport, said: “Our competitors, such as Germany and France and, further afield, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore, are testing, which is putting the UK aviation industry and business more widely at a competitive disadvantage.”

The former transport secretary, Chris Grayling, said: “I do not understand why a 72-hour test prior to departure, coupled with a check-up test on arrival in the UK, represents a greater risk than the 14-day quarantine.

“It is patently clear, I am afraid, that many people are not following the self-isolation rules.

“British Airways is showing how it could be done on transatlantic routes by starting voluntary testing on key routes to the United States. Why not make those approaches official? Does anybody seriously think that that would be a less effective way of screening for risk than the current system?”

Gavin Newlands, the SNP MP whose Paisley and Renfrewshire North constituency borders Glasgow airport, said: “We have seen the government watch as the aviation industry teeters on the edge of a cliff, and then give it a shove.”

Labour’s Sarah Owen, representing Luton North, said: “Where is the plan for testing at airports, for which the industry has been crying out for months? The government’s travel corridor policy is failing.”

In response, the aviation minister said: “It is the government’s fervent desire and utmost intention that the aviation sector recovers quickly from the dreadful pandemic.”

But Mr Courts said testing on arrival was not a possibility. “The reason for that is that the long incubation period means that a significant proportion of infected but asymptomatic passengers might receive a negative result but go on to develop the virus over the following days,” he said.

The minister also highlighted a £150m improvement scheme for Gatwick airport’s railway station.

“That expanded, modern station will provide an impressive gateway to a global Britain,” he said.