Boris Johnson praised the vaccine rollout but told TV news channels: "When it comes to travel, we will certainly be looking at that, but I want to stress that this is going to be, whatever happens, a difficult year for travel.

"There will be hassle, there will be delays I’m afraid, because the priority has got to be to keep the country safe and to stop the virus coming back in."

He said he was "looking at" an exemption from quarantine for people who have had both vaccinations but said: "I want to stress the emphasis is going to be on making sure that we can protect the country from the virus coming back in."

Health secretary Matt Hancock also confirmed ministers were "working on" scrapping quarantine for fully vaccinated travellers. 

He told BBC Breakfast: "We’re not ready to be able to take that step yet, but it’s something that I want to see and we will introduce, subject to clinical advice, as soon as it’s reasonable to do so."

It is understood the 10-day requirement will be replaced with daily Covid tests.

Mr Hancock added: "Now, we are not able to make any specific announcements on this today. It is something that we’re working on and I very much hope we’ll be able to make progress soon."