Labour former Home Secretary David Blunkett calls Government quarantine plans 'nonsense'
Former Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett described the Government’s quarantine plans as “nonsense” today.
The Labour peer, who was an MP for 28 years and served under Tony Blair, said the Government had got itself in a “bit of a hole” over the quarantine plan and urged them to drop it.
He said the economy needed to be "opened up" and the Government should modify the "nonsense" plan of a 14-day quarantine for anybody coming into the country.
Lord Blunkett told LBC’s Nick Ferrari: “There’s no sense now in this – at all – unless we target those countries in the world where the infection rate is greater than ours.
“It’s more likely that people will retaliate very strongly because they will quite rightly say ‘if our infection rates are very low and yours are dropping but they’re still higher than ours then it’s your people we should be stopping coming rather than the other way round’.
“I think if a public policy is irrational and unworkable it’s best to drop it.”
The plans, which come into force on June 8, require people arriving in the UK to isolate for two weeks to prevent coronavirus cases being brought from overseas.
It has sparked a rebellion from Conservative MPs who say the plans are damaging to business.
This afternoon Home Secretary Priti Patel will face down MPs in the Commons as she sets out the quarantine plans.
Health minister Edward Argar was quizzed over the policy this morning but was unable to name a single country in Europe with a higher coronavirus infection rate than the UK, despite being asked three times.
Lord Blunkett, who also served as Education Secretary, said in the early period the Government behaved rationally and had a “balanced approach”.
The former Secretary of State, who was previously critical of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party, also described Sir Keir Starmer as being “extremely constructive” during the pandemic.
Labour's Rachel Reeves, the shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said her party supported the quarantine plan.
Ministers argue that the quarantine rules are needed to prevent a second wave of coronavirus hitting Britain this summer.
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