‘Another hammer blow to separated families’ – MP condemns continued travel restrictions on Italy and Germany

‘Much safer there than here!’ – Ben Bradshaw, member of the Transport Select Committee

Safe space: coronavirus rates in Aachen, Germany, are much lower than in the UK (Simon Calder)

A senior Labour MP has criticised the government for failing to move relatively low-risk countries such as Germany and Italy to the “green list”.

Ben Bradshaw, who represents Exeter and is on the Transport Select Committee, has attacked the latest round of "traffic light" changes for failing to expand the quarantine list significantly.

Mr Bradshaw claimed in a tweet that Germany has only six new coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the course of a week, while the UK has 348. He said that Italy has a rate of 14 – just four per cent of the UK rate.

"Perverse that these and other countries with a fraction of our rates have not gone green," he wrote.

"Dealing another hammer blow to separated families and our transport sector.

"Much safer there than here!"

On Wednesday, the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, upgraded two Balkan countries from the amber list so that arrivals to the UK need not quarantine: Bulgaria to the “green list,” and Croatia to the “green watchlist” – indicating that it might be moved back to amber at short notice.

The data analyst Tim White tweeted his surprise that Bulgaria was chosen rather than Poland – which has much closer links with the UK.

“Hours after the strange promotion to the UK's green list, Bulgaria has seen its biggest percentage rise in new cases for weeks.

“New Covid-19 infections rose from 60 to 84 – up 40 per cent.

“Bulgaria's seven-day rate is still low, but four times higher than Poland's with only one-third of Poland's vaccination rate.”

The government says: “All classification changes are decided by ministers. These are informed by the latest data and analysis by the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) and wider public health factors.”

Hong Kong was also moved from amber to green, but does not accept visitors from the UK at present.