There are ‘no guarantees’ that countries currently free of quarantine requirements will remain that way, the Foreign Secretary has said.

Dominic Raab warned people thinking of booking holidays that they may be told to isolate at short notice, and said they should consider this before flying.

‘I’m not going to tell people what they should and shouldn’t do; they should follow the advice,’ he said.

But he added: ‘I’m going to be staying at home this summer.’

Mr Raab told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: ‘As we’ve found with Spain, we can’t give a guarantee.

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‘All we can say is we’ve got this Joint Biosecurity Centre, we monitor the risk in real time, we take decisive swift action and so there is an element of uncertainty this summer if people go abroad.’

He refused to apologise for the decision to ask people to quarantine after returning from Spain, which came into force at midnight last night.

‘The reason this was taken at reasonably short-notice was the spike in Spain that we’ve responded to … so it was the real-time response, the data we were getting from Spain (meant) we had to respond very swiftly,’ he said.

‘The cases in Spain, the data came we got was on the Friday, showed a big jump right across mainland Spain, that was then assessed yesterday afternoon and we took the decision as swiftly as we could.

‘And we can’t make apologies for doing so.

‘We must be able to take swift, decisive action, particularly in relation to localised, or internationally in relation to Spain or a particular country, where we see we must take action.

‘Otherwise, we risk re-infection into the UK, potentially a second wave here and then another lockdown.’

Asked why the Government could not have given holidaymakers an earlier warning that Spain was being assessed for quarantine, he said ministers had to be able to ‘gauge the data in real time’.

He added: ‘If we suddenly say, ‘we’re not quite sure’ and give vague advice, it would create more uncertainty.

‘There is a cut-off with changes in rules and advice we give, so I appreciate that that’s difficult and it can be disruptive.

‘But it would be far worse to either muddy the waters or to hold back and delay from taking the measures when we need to take them.

‘So yes, I understand it is disruptive for those going through this who are in Spain or have been considering going but we must though be able to take swift, decisive action to protect the UK because we’ve made such progress in getting the virus down and prevent the virus re-taking hold in the UK.’

But shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the Government’s sudden decision to take Spain off the safe list had left holidaymakers ‘confused and distressed’.

The Labour MP told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: ‘I understand why they’ve made the decision but, of course, the way in which this decision has been made in the last 24 hours is frankly shambolic.

‘There are holidaymakers in Spain at the moment confused and distressed, there are people about to go on holiday to Spain and the islands like Tenerife who are confused, and they don’t know whether their employers will allow them to take two weeks’ quarantine – the Government is just saying, ‘we hope that employers co-operate’.

‘Well, to be frank, I hope I win the lottery on Saturday but that doesn’t mean it is going to happen.

‘We need clarity from government now as to whether those who are asked to quarantine, whether they’ll get financial support if their employers refuse it them and we need clarity for those holidaymakers who are currently in Spain who have properly saved up all year for their family holiday who are confused and distressed.

‘The way in which this decision has been communicated is obviously causing anxiety.’

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