Coronavirus: Hotels 'yet to hear anything' on quarantine plan

A large hotel chain says it has not had "any discussions at all" with the UK government over plans to introduce mandatory quarantine for travellers.

Chief executive of Best Western Hotels, Rob Paterson, said he was "yet to hear anything", despite having "suggested protocols and offered our support".

In January, Boris Johnson said UK nationals and residents returning from Covid hotspots would have to quarantine in government-provided hotels.

But no start date has been set.

Mr Johnson told a Downing Street press conference on Wednesday that his colleague, Health Secretary Matt Hancock, would make a further announcement on the plans - and the timetable - on Thursday.

But later, No 10 said the prime minister had been "misinformed".

Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi told BBC Breakfast an "operational plan" would be announced in "the coming days" by Mr Hancock.

There has been growing pressure on the government to introduce tougher border restrictions in the UK after emergence of new coronavirus variants from other countries, such as South Africa.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps introduced the requirement for travellers to have a negative test result before arriving in the UK last month, but critics continued to call for mandatory quarantine in hotels for all arrivals - echoing similar moves in Australia and New Zealand.

At the end of January, Mr Johnson confirmed this rule would be introduced, but only for UK nationals and residents returning from 30 "red list" Covid hotspots.

But Labour has continued to call for the UK to go further, with its leader, Sir Keir Starmer, saying at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday: "Why does the prime minister think that the variants of the virus will behave differently and only arrive by direct flights?"

Mr Johnson said it was "not practical completely to close off this country", but claimed the UK already had "one of the toughest regimes in the world" at its borders.