Longtime Tory voter abandons party over Covid travel restrictions

4 June 2021, 13:46

Tories lose this caller's support over handling of travel restrictions

It comes as holidaymakers in Portugal face a scramble back to the UK, with thousands more cancelling trips due to the new quarantine rules which come into force at 4am on Tuesday.

When the country moves onto the amber list, people will have to quarantine at home for ten days after visiting, and pay for and take two Covid tests, on days two and eight.

Adding significant costs, a British family of four in Portugal, for example, would now face having to pay £1,000 to buy the various PCR tests at £125 each.

Barry in Barnet told Matt Frei he has had to cancel his Portugal holiday: "I think the Government are helping racketeering to be going on. The PCR tests are absolutely exorbitant, fortunes are being made by people over that."

Read more: Former EasyJet chair reacts to 'enormous costs' as Portugal is amber listed

Portugal: Nick Ferrari confronts Jenrick over Govt 'failing' to warn

He felt aggrieved because he will now have to pay an extra £100 to change his flight - and if he had known sooner, this would have been free.

"I've been a supporter of the Conservative Party for many many years, and of all the things that Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock have got wrong over the last year, I've accepted this.

"I'm not going to accept what's happened over this. They've lost my support. I've got a very very good constituency MP Theresa Villiers who I trust very much and I think she's very competent.

"The Conservative Party over this have lost my support completely."

Read more: Portugal: 'Where was the green watch list Shapps promised?' Nick Ferrari asks Jenrick

Earlier in Nick Ferrari's breakfast show minister Robert Jenrick defended Portugal's swift move from the green list to the amber list - despite Transport Secretary Grant Shapps' promise on LBC of a green watch list.

Mr Shapps had told Nick in April: "We're going to have a green watch list this year. Now that means that we'll be letting people know where we have a country that may be coming on to the horizon as a concern but remain in the green list for the moment.

"That'll help provide people with a bit of forward guidance and I hope to avoid some of the scenes we saw last year where suddenly the country moves."

When confronted by Nick, Mr Jenrick said that the green watch list was "still an option" but gave no clarity on whether it will be used or any countries will be categorised here.