Travel from the UK to the European mainland could be disrupted as a result of coronavirus restrictions once the Brexit transition period ends, the foreign secretary has said.
The UK will no longer be part of the European Union’s free movement rules after 1 January.
Just a small number of countries with low COVID-19 rates are exempt from rules that bar non-essential visitors from outside the EU and European Economic Area (EEA).
These include Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea – but an EU Commission spokesman last week said there were no plans to extend that to the UK. “This is a decision for the council (European Council) to make,” he said.
Questioned on the report in the Financial Times, Dominic Raab told BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Thursday: “COVID restrictions will depend on the combination of what the EU decides, but also member states.
“We have already got challenges with that and we have put our restrictions in place.”
He acknowledged that coronavirus “remains a live issue and we need to make sure we have got control of it”.