Speaking at the government’s daily coronavirus briefing, Johnson was pressed on Westminster’s efforts to secure travel arrangements with the UK’s nearest neighbours.

Evening Standard political reporter Sophia Sleigh asked Johnson: "Spain says it’s considering imposing quarantine restrictions on UK visitors unless the British government lifts its own two-week isolation rule, what is your response to Spain?"

She also asked if Johnson would be discussing a travel corridor with France when he holds talks with French president Emmanuel Macron later this week.

Johnson replied: "I’ll be talking to Emmanuel Macron about all sorts of ways we can bring our countries together, making sure that we will eventually be able to travel freely to and from each other’s countries – [the] same goes obviously for Spain as soon as we can.

"The reason for having the quarantine system is very simply, we don’t want to reimport the disease just at the moment when we’ve really got it under control in this country. We’re certainly looking at air bridges and ways to ensure people can safely go on holiday eventually."