Britons should spend their summer holidays at home this year and avoid travel abroad unless absolutely necessary, the environment secretary has said.

George Eustice dashed hopes of foreign summer trips, as he said his advice to the public would be to instead visit ‘the fabulous places’ the UK has to offer.

He acknowledged that many will want to visit green list destinations – but said they need to be aware of the risks involved.

Mr Eustice’s comments came as British holidaymakers scrambled to get home from Portugal with just hours to go before it was put on the amber list last night.

He told Sky News this morning: ‘Our advice all along has been don’t travel unless it’s absolutely necessary. 

‘Obviously, we had hoped with these three categories that we have that the situation would be improving in other parts of the world – that we’d be able to progressively add other countries to the green list.

‘Sadly, that’s not the situation. We do have this new variant of concern – first identified in India – that is now cropping up in other countries.

‘And we’ve just got to take a very cautious approach.’

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He added that he has ‘no intention’ of booking a holiday abroad this summer and would be taking a trip to Cornwall.

‘But obviously, some people will want to travel abroad. There are still a small number of countries on that green list,’ the environment secretary added.

‘If they want to do that they can, but obviously they will have to understand that there are risks in doing so as well.’

Angry holidaymakers today said they felt ‘ashamed to be British’ as they raced back from Portugal to avoid amber list restrictions.

Anyone who did not make it back in time will now have to quarantine for 10 days and take at least two PCR tests.

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Passengers flying into England complained their trips were ‘ruined’ as many were forced to fork out hundreds to change flights at the last minute and come home early.

Holiday hopefuls were left devastated on Thursday when the Government announced that people had until today before the popular holiday destination would be bumped off the green list.

The Government made the move following ‘growing evidence’ of the new Nepal Covid variant in Portugal, where cases have nearly doubled within three weeks.

Travel industry leaders were also furious that no new countries were added to the green list in the latest update, claiming the Government had ‘torn up its own rule book and ignored the science’. 

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