Nick Ferrari clashes with Grant Shapps over 'holiday police'
20 May 2021, 09:49
Nick Ferrari clashes with Grant Shapps over 'holiday police'
This is Nick Ferrari's clash with Transport Secretary Grant Shapps over 'travel police' checking up on Brits quarantining after travel.
Nick Ferrari challenged Transport Secretary Grant Shapps asking if it was a Conservative policy to have the "travel Stasi" knocking on people's doors with the possibility of issuing a £10,000 fine.
"These are the days of East Germany aren't they?" Nick asked Mr Shapps.
Mr Shapps said the issue was simple, that people should not travel to a red list country.
But, he said that people only faced the prospect of a fine if they deliberately broke the law.
"There are big fines, and prison sentences, if you deliberately choose to ignore your responsibility to protect other people," Mr Shapps said.
Matt Hancock on how UK is 'working to protect people around the world'
The conversation comes after Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced that 30,000 home visits had been carried out in the last week to check people were quarantining.
Passengers arriving from amber list countries are required to self-isolate for 10 days and take two tests.
The Health Secretary said as many as 30,000 door-to-door inspections had taken place in the past week to ensure people were following quarantine rules after foreign travel.
Matt Hancock said all Government advice had been "completely consistent" on travelling to a country on its "amber list", stating: "If you go to an amber list country, when you come back you have to go through the testing regime - three tests - (and) you have to quarantine.
"I can tell you that in the last week we've done 30,000 home visits to check people are quarantining and you should only go to a red list country or an amber list country if you have exceptional circumstances.
"The purpose of the green list is that we have looked around the world at the countries where we think it is safe to travel, both from a point of view of having no or very low variants of concern and a low case rate, just as we have here in the UK."
