Double-jabbed Brits will be able to jet off with their kids for the school summer holidays

DOUBLE-JABBED Brits will be able to jet off with their kids at the start of the school summer holidays.

Ministers are plotting to open up the nation's borders a week after Freedom Day on July 26, opening up the Spanish Costas, French campsites and Greek islands for covid weary Brits.


Schools break up the Friday before, allowing families to get off to amber countries provided they are vaccinated.

It means they won't have to isolate for ten days on their return.

Children will be exempted from the rule, but everyone travelling will have to take a test before departing back to the UK and on the second day back at home.

Ministers are still arguing over the date it will come into to force, with some hoping to push the date forward to Freedom Day.

Boris Johnson has said "double jabs will be a liberator" when asked about reports that fully vaccinated people may be able to travel quarantine-free from amber list countries by July 26.

During a visit to a Nissan plant in Sunderland, the Prime Minister told reporters: "Everybody who is frustrated about travel over the summer – double jabs will be a liberator.

"I want travel to be possible but I've got to stress that this year will not be like every other year because of the difficulties with Covid. People shouldn't expect it will be completely hassle free."

However Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is expected to announce the details at the next travel review on July 15 – barring any new variants or issues unlocking the nation.

Downing Street said they did not have a date set for the announcement.

The PM's official spokesman said: "We need to work through some some of the details about how that will work operationally, so we can provide certainty to the UK public."

Earlier this week, Mr Shapps told MPs the plan to create 'vaccine passports' is a "complicated policy, which requires time to work through.”

He revealed around half a million people are not able to get the vaccine, and there are issues of “fairness” for children and youngsters who are not eligible to get jabbed yet.

But officials are working through the details to save the summer.

It’s understood airlines and holiday companies are broadly supportive of the policy, and new laws implemented before Parliament goes into summer recess.

Travel expert Paul Charles said: “The Govt desperately needs to save family summer holidays – what better policy than enabling fully-jabbed U.K. citizens to avoid quarantine and face lower testing costs from most countries, as soon as schools break up.”

In angry Commons exchanges this week Tory MPs lined up to pelt Mr Shapps over the holiday fiasco. 

Influential Tory MP, Huw Merriman, chair of the Transport Select Committee called for a “flight path” out of the restrictions, giving travellers and the industry more clarity.

And Tory grandee Liam Fox dubbed Brits "second class citizens in our own country" and blasted the strict travel rules as making "no sense".

Crawley MP Henry Smith warned last night: "If we don't have a meaningful summer of transatlantic operations, it's expected to cost the UK economy about £2.5billion and up to 52,000 jobs lost."

And fellow Tory MP Julian Sturdy welcomed ministers' plans to scrap quarantine rules for amber list countries but demanded clarity on when the rules would come in.

He said: "Ideally we need it in place at the start of the summer holidays to give families the confidence to book and ensure it has the maximum impact in helping the travel sector recover.

"If this is delayed for too long, the summer for the travel sector will be lost." 

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