On 3 February, Luke Pollard appeared on Politics Live to discuss Labour’s proposal to enforce new arrivals into the UK to quarantine upon arrival.

Britain has seen the success that other island nations – such as Australia and New Zealand – have had tackling the virus due to introducing tighter rules on travelling. At a time when new Coronavirus variants from around the world are spreading, it is vital that Britain also tightens its rules on travelling in order to prevent these new variants entering the UK.

The Labour Party is proposing that all new UK arrivals must quarantine in a hotel, in order to ensure that they don’t spread any new Covid-19 variant across the country. This is a vital policy that would both encourage people to travel less and ensure that the spread of Covid-19 is reduced.

Time and time again during this pandemic, the Conservative Government has acted far too slowly. We’re now a year into the pandemic, yet Britain’s border policies remain far too relaxed.

The rollout of the vaccine has so far been a huge success. However, the hard work that has gone into it risks being thwarted by the spread of new Covid-19 variants from abroad.

We can’t let this happen. We can’t let all the effort that has gone into the vaccine go to waste. It is time the Government acted to introduce stricter border policies and ensure that arrivals into the UK aren’t threatening our nation’s health. Enforcing mandatory quarantine periods for new arrivals is the surest way to do that.

The Labour Party’s proposed policy of quarantining new arrivals is sensible, safe and popular with the public. The Government must introduce it promptly to ensure that the nation’s efforts against Covid-19 aren’t futile.