PM: 'Real opportunity' to open up foreign travel for the fully vaccinated

24 June 2021, 12:24 | Updated: 24 June 2021, 22:05

Boris Johnson"not ruling out" trip abroad this summer

Boris Johnson has said there exists a "real opportunity to open up travel" this summer for those who have two doses of the coronavirus jab.

Asked about Angela Merkel saying the Delta variant meant there should be more restrictions on British travellers going abroad, the Prime Minister said: "I think that the real opportunity we all have now is to open up travel through the double jab.

"If you look at it we've got more than 60% of our population have now had two jabs, I think 83% have had one jab, we're really getting through it now.

"The crucial thing is come forward and get your second jab."

READ MORE: Summer holiday hope for Balearic Islands and Malta as ‘green list’ gets latest update

READ MORE: Merkel's call for Brit travellers to quarantine in EU is 'unjustified' - minister

On a visit to New Normandy Barracks in Aldershot, he said: "I'm not going to claim that this summer, for travel purposes, is going to be like any other summer. I don't want to cast a pall over things but, as I said the other day, it will be different."

Asked whether he would be taking a holiday abroad this summer, Boris Johnson said: "My plans at this stage are at the unformed stage, I'm afraid."

He added: "I'm certainly not ruling it in or ruling it out."

Eustice: Angela Merkel's call for EU quarantine on Brits 'unjustified'

The Government has since added Malta and the Balearics to the green list.

Scientists are understood to have advised the government that the popular holiday destinations of Mallorca, Ibiza, and Menorca are safe to visit.

But Angela Merkel is leading calls to make all UK travellers enter quarantine when they arrive in the EU due to concerns about the Delta variant.

Travel bosses have demanded the Government either allows it to reopen further or provides extended financial help.

Ministers say they want to stop new cases of Covid and variants from arriving in the UK.

"Of course I very much hope the world could open up," Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said previously.