Holidaymakers could face fresh travel chaos over plans to put Spain and Italy on a new ‘amber watch list’.
The idea, said to be agreed in principle this week, would see Brits in amber countries warned they could go straight onto the red list.
The proposal has reportedly sparked uproar in Whitehall, with some ministers warning the scheme could wreck the holiday hopes of millions.
Anyone in a red list country has to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days on return and pick up the bill of £1,750 a head.
Spain and Italy have both featured in talks about countries that could be put into the new category as soon as next week, according to the Daily Mail.
Some within government are concerned about the Beta variant which first emerged in South Africa, but others are against imposing any more travel rules on the hard-hit sector.
One Whitehall source said: ‘You would have to be crackers to book a holiday to a place knowing that it could go on to the red list at any moment.
‘If you have already booked to go there you are going to spend your whole holiday worrying whether you are going to have to make a dash to the airport to get home.
‘The decision next week will basically be in place for August. It is peak holiday season – are we really going to cause that much disruption to this many people?’
Senior ministers, including Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, are said to have reservations about the plan.
Some ministers doubt whether it is even possible to put Spain on the red list this summer, given the limited amount of hotel quarantine capacity in the UK.
Another source said that the Treasury had warned ministers to ‘stop messing about with travel’.
It comes after the government was criticised for creating a new category for France.
On Freedom Day it was announced double-vaccinated tourists could skip quarantine upon returning to the UK from amber list countries, except for France.
While remaining on the amber list people will still have to self-isolate on their return even if they are double jabbed, putting it on a so-called ‘amber plus’ list.
Despite hopes France could be moved back to amber, there have been discussions about moving it onto the watch list.
Mr Shapps has urged people not to speculate, ahead of a review of the traffic light system next week.
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