More than 300 travel firms have now backed a campaign calling on the government to soften or scrap its the policy, due to come into force on Monday (8 June).

MPs had been due to debate the issue in the House of Commons on Tuesday (2 June), but the discussion will now take place on Wednesday (3 June).

George Morgan-Grenville, chief executive of Red Savannah and founder of the GetGoing quarantine campaign, has urged anyone with a stake in the travel sector – from agents and operators to hoteliers and other business owners – to use the delay to contact their local MP urgently.

Speaking on an Elman Wall seminar on Tuesday, Morgan-Grenville said the quarantine policy placed the travel sector "on the verge of catastrophe" and urged MPs to pursue an "air bridge" policy instead; this would allow arrivals returning from countries with lower rates of coronavirus infection to forego the government’s 14-day self-isolation requirement.

"The quarantine debate in parliament has been delayed until tomorrow," said Morgan-Grenville in an email to campaign backers on Tuesday afternoon. "Please use this opportunity to contact your MP urgently and let them know about the disaster that is about to unfold – before tomorrow’s debate.

"They must be made aware of the potential for hundreds of thousands of job losses all over the country."

There are several ways to email your local or constituency MP:

• Use the government’s MP search and contact tools to send an email;
• Visit writetothem.com, enter your post code, and then scroll down to your MP’s name. Select it, and you will be presented a form to send an email;
• Use theyworkforyou.com to send a message;
• Or alternatively, use Google or another search engine to find your MP’s constituency or parliamentary email address and send them an email

Emails needn’t be long, they should just state who you are, who you are representing, and why you believe the 14-day quarantine on arrival policy would damage the travel sector.

TTG is backing the GetGoing campaign; anyone wishing to lend their support should email their name, title and the name of the firm they are representing to getgoing@redsavannah.com.