John Holland-Kaye, chief executive of Heathrow, is writing a letter to the Health Secretary Matt Hancock to demand strict medical controls on passengers arriving into the country from abroad. The airport’s bosses want an internationally agreed set of measures implemented, that could include temperature checks, antibody tests and a requirement for all travellers to carry a health passport proving that they are fit to travel. Currently the UK operates an open border policy and there are no checks on passengers flying into UK airports, something that has been labelled a “disaster” by a senior industry insider.

It is believed that around 15,000 people are flying into the UK every day, including from countries like China, Italy and Iran, where the killer virus has been running rampant.

None of these arrivals go through any form of health checks, despite potentially carrying the coronavirus.

Britain’s approach stands in stark contrast to other countries in Europe and around the world, who have either closed their borders or insisted on carrying out stringent checks.

These include mass temperature screening and mandatory quarantining.

Public Health England (PHE) have insisted that temperature checks are “ineffective” against a virus that does not necessarily show it symptoms for 14 days.

However, airport bosses are now insisting that PHE releases the scientific data on which that decision has been based, claiming that they are being unfairly blamed by the public for the current situation.

Medical experts say that temperature screening would only pick-up a small number of cases and that the decision to not introduce the measure was taken by the Department of Health and Social Care.

Passengers entering the UK are instead handed information leaflets and told to self-isolate for 14 days should they come down with COVID-19 symptoms.
However, officials have admitted that they have no way of checking that people follow these guidelines.

Critics have pointed out that this policy undermines the lockdown measures, taken to halt the spread of the contagion.

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Professor Gabriel Scally from the Royal Society of Medicine told the Financial Times: “The UK is an outlier.

“It is very hard to understand why it persists in having this open borders policy. It is most peculiar.”

A source at the Department of Transport told the Daily Mail that they had initially wanted to introduce stringent checks, only to be told that they would be of no use.

The source explained: “Our initial instinct was ‘oh my God, we should be testing everybody because who knows what they could be bringing in.

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“At the same time, we were being told that airport testing was probably the least effective way of controlling the arrival of the virus.

“In the end, we decided to ask airlines to carry out checks on passengers before they depart to the UK.

“This was a bit hit and miss. We could only regulate UK airlines at UK airports, so we had no way of making sure checks were being carried out in places like China.”

Airport bosses are worried that the lack of testing is giving a false impression UK airports are more dangerous than they are and that this will impact on passenger numbers.

The transport select committee has confirmed plans to investigate the policy on airport testing, in a sign that the government may change its position.

In a statement, PHE said: “The decision not to introduce temperature screening was based on the best scientific evidence.”

The Airport Operators Association added: “UK airports are following current guidelines on screening of passengers… Should the views of experts change and guidance updated, airports will follow that advice.”

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