Next British review of international travel ‘green list’ in first week of June
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The “green list” is to expand, the British transport secretary Grant Shapps said Thursday morning.
When asked on Radio 4’s Today programme whether he was pushing for the green list to be expanded, Shapps replied: “yes of course”.
He added: “We’re reviewing this all the time, every three weeks. The next review is the first week in June and we’ll have to see what happens.”
He said he wanted to see more countries added to the “green list” for travel.
He attempted to clarify the confusion spread by ministers earlier this week, saying: “The amber list and the red list are not for holidaymakers, that’s not the purpose of those lists at this time.
“We just think that after a year of lockdowns in this country, of people coming forward in record numbers to get their vaccines, we do not want to be in a position of taking risks at this stage about our unlock.”
Asked if he was pushing for the green list to be extended he said: “Of course. The reason for that is we have ended up getting way ahead in terms of our vaccination programme in this country and we are just having to wait for other countries to catch up with us.
“That’s going to gradually happen, obviously, you can see it’s happening, so that list should expand.”
Shapps said decisions on expanding the green list would depend on data showing the state of the pandemic in the various countries.
“We are reviewing this all the time, every three weeks, the next review is in the first week of June and we’ll have to see what happens,” he said.
“But by and large we are just asking people to be a little bit patient as other countries catch up with our world-leading vaccination programme and then people will be able to, I hope, travel.”
The US, China and India have all administered more vaccinations than the UK.
