Boris Johnson today revealed travellers to the UK from 22 ‘red list’ Covid countries will be forced to quarantine in hotels for 10 days

Boris Johnson today revealed travellers to the UK from 22 ‘red list’ Covid countries will be forced to quarantine in hotels for 10 days.

Mr Johnson also announced that Britons will be sent home from airports if they fail to prove their trip abroad is ‘essential’. 

Airlines are expected to be fined if they fail to enforce non-exemptions properly after influencers were accused of ‘taking the p***’ by jetting out to Dubai, claiming their Instagram updates constituted work. 

The Prime Minister told the Commons that passengers will be ‘met at the airport and transported directly into quarantine’.

A travel industry source told the PA news agency that the list of destinations this will apply to includes all of South America, southern Africa and Portugal.

He is introducing an Australian-style quarantine scheme following concerns about new Covid variants entering Britain – but ignored a plea from Priti Patel and Health Secretary Matt Hancock to apply the diktat to all arrivals.

Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer told the Commons today that the Government had ‘failed’ by being ‘too slow’ to bring it in and claiming that quarantining arrivals from 22 countries ‘doesn’t go far enough’. 

The 22 ‘high risk’ countries, due to be published later today by the Home Secretary along with a start date, are expected to include Brazil, South Africa, Portugal, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, much of South America and southern Africa.  These areas have been chosen because of dangerous variants that have emerged there – or because they have rocketing infection and death rates.

Passengers arriving in Britain from any of the listed countries will have to isolate for 10 days in hotels near airports and pay around £1,500 for the privilege.     

Boris Johnson told the Commons: ‘I want to make clear that under the stay at home regulations, it is illegal to leave home to travel abroad for leisure purposes and we will enforce this at ports and airports by asking people why they are leaving and instructing them to return home if they do not have a valid reason to travel.

‘We have also banned all travel from 22 countries where there is a risk of known variants including South Africa, 수원셔츠룸 Portugal and South American nations.

‘And in order to reduce the risk posed by UK nationals and 수원가라오케 residents returning home from these countries, I can announce that we will require all such arrivals who cannot be refused entry to isolate in Government provided accommodation, such as hotels, for 10 days without exception.

‘They will be met at the airport and transported directly into quarantine.

The Department of Health and Social Care is working to establish these facilities as quickly as possible.’ 

The impending quarantine rules came as: 

• Boris Johnson said he was ‘deeply sorry for every life lost’ as the UK went past 100,000 coronavirus deaths as the PM insisted the Government ‘did all we could’;
• England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty believes the country has reached the peak of the latest – and most serious – wave of the pandemic;
• People infected with Kent coronavirus variant are MORE likely to get symptoms than those who catch older strains, ONS report reveals – but they are less likely to lose smell and taste; 
• Cases are falling fast – down from 68,000 cases recorded on January 7 to just over 20,000 yesterday.

  The figure is the lowest it has been since December. But another 1,631 deaths were recorded within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test yesterday, taking the total to 100,162;