Citing senior government sources, The Times reports the UK’s Joint Biosecurity Centre was ready to recommend Malta and several other islands were fit to join the green list.
The Foreign Office is not currently advising against all but essential travel to Malta, several Greek islands and the Canary Islands.
Additionally, the paper reports transport secretary Grant Shapps, with support from the Treasury, argued for Portugal to be placed on the government’s green watchlist rather than being removed from the green list altogether.
Reporting to government in April, the Global Travel Taskforce recommended countries on the green list at risk of being downgraded be placed on a watchlist to give travellers clarity. Shapps subsequently hinted in the lead up to the resumption of international travel on 17 May that the watchlist warning period could be as long as two weeks.
In the end, it was announced on Thursday (3 June) that Portugal would be removed from the green list and placed on the amber list from 4am on Tuesday (8 June) leaving holidaymakers scrambling to get home to avoid quarantine, the exact situation the government just months earlier promised to avoid after the chaos of last summer’s travel corridor regime.
According to The Times, health secretary Matt Hancock and cabinet officer Michael Gove, with the support of the Home Office, advocated for Portugal to be moved straight from the green list to the amber list without being placed on the green watchlist first.
It was also reported scientific papers key to the government’s decision-making were only issued to those due to attend the meeting minutes in advance.
A source close to Shapps, cited by The Times, described the exchange at the meeting as a "heated row", adding "some ministers wanted a watchlist of green countries that might go amber" with Portugal "borderline".
Speaking to LBC on Friday (4 June), housing minister Robert Jenrick said the concept of a watchlist "remained an option" but said the government reserved the right to act decisively on travel matters with regards to Covid.
Presenter Nick Ferrari, who pressed Jenrick on the issue repeatedly, citing Shapps’ comments on the watchlist, said: "You can’t have one of your senior colleagues promise a watchlist so people feel a degree of comfort going to Portugal, or wherever else it might be, and then as and when a fast-moving situation alters, you give no warning whatsoever."
Jenrick said there wasn’t time on this occasion. Shapps told the nation the previous day the decision was based on the emergence of new variants of Covid-19 in Portugal, including a "Nepal mutation" of the Delta strain of Covid-19 – the so-called Indian variant.
