Delivery of the Covid vaccine will not be disrupted by France temporarily closing its borders to the UK amid fears over a new strain of the virus, the Transport Secretary has said.

Speaking to Sky News this morning, Grant Shapps promised the disruption around the Channel ports in Kent ‘won’t have an impact on the vaccination programme’.

He said: ‘Most vaccine doesn’t come via what is called “Ro-Ro”, roll-on, roll-off, which is what we are talking about here. In other words, it’s not usually accompanied by a driver, by a haulier. It comes on those containers.

‘To put this into context, there are about 6,000 vehicles we would expect, just under in Dover today, probably 4,000 would have gone across from Dover, just under about 2,000 on the Eurotunnel.

‘But there is probably something like 32,000 units that would have been the daily total, so the vast majority – including virtually all the vaccine – actually comes via container and there are good supplies in the meantime. So this won’t have an impact on the vaccination programme.’

France joined Ireland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Finland, Bulgaria and Denmark in announcing a temporary ban on travel from the UK on Sunday, amid concerns of a new, more contagious, variant of Covid.

Canada, Israel, Turkey, Morocco, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and El Salvador have also since temporarily closed their borders to the UK, while the US remains under pressure to take immediate action.

Shapps previously warned that he expected ‘significant disruption’ as a result of the European restrictions, including to accompanied freight, despite travel into the UK from France still being allowed.

On Sunday evening, the Port of Dover announced its ferry terminal would close for the period the travel ban remains in force. Eurotunnel also made a similar announcement that it would not be open.

Boris Johnson has said the new virus mutation, which is thought to be responsible for more than half of new cases in London, could be up to 70% more contagious than previous variants.

During a press conference on Saturday, the PM placed London and parts of the South East in a newly formed tier four, and cancelled the planned easing of restrictions between December 23 and 27.

This morning Shapps also stated that the government would provide refunds for rail and coach tickets bought between those dates, if they were booked on or after November 24, when the Christmas bubbles were announced.

He said: ‘This ensures no one is left out of pocket for doing the right thing – staying home in Tier 4, and elsewhere staying local and only meeting your Christmas bubble on Christmas Day.’

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