HOLIDAY plans will never have to be “shut down” ever again as draconian Covid travel rules finally come to an end tomorrow.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tells Trending In The News half-term hols are on and pricey Covid tests for trips abroad will likely be placed in the bin of history.
Speaking to Trending In The News, Mr Shapps hailed the “very significant moment” as double jabbed travellers only have to fill in a simple form to enter Blighty.
And from tomorrow fully jabbed Brits who head to Portugal and Greece won’t have to take a test when they jet off OR land back in Britain.
France and other top destinations are set to follow.
Declaring spring sunshine season open, Mr Shapps said: “I am a freedom loving libertarian who wants to see Sun readers travel the world, get a bit of sunshine and have a well earned break.”
He added: “This is travel coming back to usual.
“People will be able to come back to this country, not have to carry out any tests at all, just have to fill out the passenger locator form, which in itself will become more simple.”
In 2020 Mr Shapps was stuck in Spain when the “travel corridor” set up between the two nations was suddenly scrapped, meaning he had to quarantine for two weeks at home on his return.
Since then tourists have had to juggle green, amber and red lists, and a raft of confusing and expensive testing regimes.
Asked if it meant holidays are safe from hated curbs forever, he added: “I’m more confident of that than any other time since Covid started.”
And he admitted he “hated” limiting travel and holidays during the pandemic — which even saw holidays made illegal during the first half of 2021.”
Speaking candidly, he said: “I asked the Prime Minister to become transport minister because I love transport, and I love the concept of people being able to move freely around the country and internationally.
“I’ve hated every part of limiting people’s travel. It’s not what I came into the role to do.”
As the pandemic has progressed more countries have followed Britain’s industry leading genomic sequencing programmes — meaning testing at the border isn’t needed to spot dodgy variants.
And he has been working with other countries to draw up a “playbook” of rules to deal with new virus strains so that action can be taken without shutting frontiers which “will help us to ensure that rather than having to shut down, we can put measures in place that are internationally agreed if required.”
But Mr Shapps has not yet got around to booking his own breaking, but will be soon.
Cheerfully he said: “I know I will be looking forward to the family booking something with more confidence — somewhere sunny is pretty high on the list.
“We haven’t discussed it yet but in previous years we would hold off just to be sure, but now we are more confident.”
