Brits can jet off to Malta, Barbados and Mallorca quarantine-free from next week

Popular holiday hotspots Malta, Barbados, Mallorca and Minorca will all be added to the UK’s green travel list, Grant Shapps has announced.

Sun-loveing Brits will finally be able to jet off for a week or more to these popular destinations and avoid quarantining from 4am next Wednesday, the Transport Secretary said on Thursday evening.

“We’re adding Malta to the Govt green list,” he announced on Twitter.

“We’re also adding Madeira, the Balearic Islands, several UK Overseas Territories and Caribbean Islands (including Barbados) to the green list and green watchlist.

“Israel & Jerusalem are also added to the green watchlist.”

However six more countries are also being added to the UK’s travel red list which does require a post-return quarantine, Shapps has confirmed.

He tweeted: “Six countries including Tunisia and Haiti will be put on the red list.

“All these changes will come into effect from Weds 30 June at 4am.”

Shapps added it is the Government’s intention that “later in the summer” UK residents who are fully vaccinated will not have to isolate when travelling from amber list countries, adding that further details will be set out next month.

Earlier in the day both Scotland and Northern Ireland revealed their respective renewed “green lists” for international travel.

Malta, Madeira, Balearics, Antigua, Barbados, and Bermuda were among the mostly island nations added.

It comes after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said UK travellers should be quarantined wherever they arrive in the EU due to growing fears over the spread of the Delta variant.

“In our country, if you come from Great Britain, you have to go into quarantine – and that’s not the case in every European country, and that’s what I would like to see,” she told the Bundestag lower house of parliament.

Hundreds of cabin crew, pilots and travel agents held demonstrations calling on ministers to relax the rules to avoid a summer of “chaos” on Wednesday.

Industry body Abta organised protests outside Parliament in Westminster, Holyrood in Edinburgh and Stormont in Belfast – with many attending in uniform carrying placards reading “speak up for travel” and “allow safe travel overseas”.

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