Saturday, 15 August 2020_Transport Minister Grant Shapps, during a TV interview, announced that France would be removed from the UK travel corridor, which caused much confusion as he gave the wrong starting date for quarantine measures when returning to Britain from France.
Mr Shapps had erroneously said, on TV, that people arriving in the UK from France would have to isolate for 14 days from Sunday, but the move is actually coming into force at 4am on Saturday.
In a speedily deleted tweet referencing the imposition of the measures, Shapps declared at 10.45pm on Thursday: “It’s Saturday at 4am, meaning that anyone returning on Sunday onwards will need to quarantine.”
Some holidaymakers, having seen the Transport Minister’s interview, mistakenly booked return trips later on Saturday after seeing Shapps’s interview, meaning they would arrive after the measures came into effect.
Andrew Neil(@afneil)
I fear the transport minister didn’t know what he was talking about. https://t.co/2lfOxT0qwJ
During the TV interview, Shapps said: “Well, the French government have said that unfortunately the virus has been going the wrong way there.”
“There’s been a 66% increase in the number of positive tests in the last week alone. And so, unfortunately, France is having to be added to the quarantine list. That means if you’re coming back from France then you must self-isolate for 14 days when you come back from Sunday.”
This protocol will all also apply to people arriving from the Netherlands, Malta, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Aruba and Monaco.
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