Boris Johnson defends hotel quarantine plan as he warns borders cannot totally close

UK prime minister highlights the need for imported Covid vaccines to continue from Europe

People in the arrivals area at Heathrow Airport in London. AP

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that shutting the UK's borders would restrict the flow of supplies of medical supplies from Europe.

His remarks came as pressure builds on him to name a start date for the country’s hotel quarantine system.

Currently, hotel quarantine only applies to travellers from a so-called red list of countries, including the UAE, where authorities are concerned about variants of the virus.

Ministers have not said when the quarantine hotels will open,  but travel industry analysts suggested February 15.

The opposition Labour party wanted the government to require all incoming travellers to pay for their own quarantine in England, after Scotland on Tuesday announced managed isolation for all overseas arrivals.

However, Mr Johnson rejected the demand, saying it was not practical to implement a complete shutdown of the UK’s borders.

“When [Labour leader Keir Starmer] calls for a complete closure of borders or suggests that might be an option, he should be aware of the 75 per cent of our medicines coming to this country from the European continent, 45 per cent of our food, 250,000 businesses in this country rely on imports,” he told MPs.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits a COVID-19 vaccination centre in Batley, England. Getty Images

“It is not practical completely to close off this country, as he seems to be suggesting.”

Earlier, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that the evidence in favour of closing the border was “pretty shaky”.

He said that the UK could not easily close the border like New Zealand and Australia.

“We wouldn’t be safe because we’re an island nation … and that means we need to get medicines in; we need to get food in; we need to get our raw materials in; sometimes we need to move people around, scientists and others,” he said.

“And if we weren’t doing these things we simply wouldn’t be combating this crisis. In fact, specifically we wouldn’t have had things like the medicines that we’ve needed or indeed the vaccinations, some of which are manufactured in Europe.”

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the UK government’s response at the border was inadequate given the new variants of Covid-19, and pledged to introduce a “much more comprehensive” system for Scotland.