Holidays: BA CEO discusses PCR coronavirus testing

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Layla Moran, spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs and International Development, said the Government had been sending mixed messages regarding the coronavirus measures in place for the past 24 hours. Speaking to BBC Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis, Ms Moran said MPs had previously raised concerns about a travel system that she says seems “not to have been fixed”.

She said: “It sounds like the government doesn’t know its own system.

“We’ve had 24 hours of complete mixed messaging.

“And two weeks ago, when the whole party group looked at this, we expressed concern, mainly because there were clearly holes in the system that existed then that seemed not to have been fixed at all.”

Ms Moran’s remarks come as Conservative MP Mims Davies stressed the importance of considering “staycations” this year instead of foreign getaways.

The Tory MP for Mid Sussex also highlighted the impact of domestic tourism in local economies.

She told BBC News: “As a Government, we’ve made it really clear this year: don’t expect holidays to be in the way you would like them to be.”

Ms Davies added: “If you do need to travel to see family and friends that’s because it’s very important, but staycations and supporting our own economy is the way to do it as long as you’re taking the right precautions around Covid.

“There is a balance here because myself as a local constituency MP close to Gatwick airport seeing the impact of the travel and tourism industry, it’s extremely difficult to manage that.”

Ms Davies also made reference to Government plans to contain the spread of coronavirus in areas like Bolton, which has seen a rise in cases.

She said: “We’ve tried to act accordingly with passengers’ locations, the really focused testing, and of course where we’re seeing surging, for example in Bolton.

“Helping people to understand the importance about getting the jabs, about taking tests, doing that local surge testing and that really focused searching in terms of your contacts if there has been any positives.

“So we all need to take our responsibility because we all want to get back to normality as soon as possible.

“But we’ve been very clear, this time around it’s the summer of staycations and taking precautions around Covid so we don’t lose all that hard-fought freedom that we started to see coming back to us yesterday.”

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