Overseas holidays from UK illegal from Monday with £5,000 fine

Brits trying to travel abroad without a reasonable excuse could be fined up to £5,000 under new legislation, which will come into force on Monday if approved by MPs on Thursday, which is just a formality. Under the new laws, non-essential foreign travel will be banned until June 30^th, which throws more doubt on May 17^th as a ‘reactivation’ date for travel.

International travel was already banned in most circumstances under the lockdown rules but the law is being tweaked for when the ‘stay-at-home’ order lifts on March 29th. A Government travel taskforce is looking at when foreign travel could resume, and it is expected to report to Boris Johnson by April 12^th.

The UK lockdown roadmap says holidays abroad will not be allowed until May 17^th at the earliest, but this new legislation is likely to dampen hopes of this date as a reopening, as it can ban them until the end of June. MPs will vote on the new coronavirus laws on Thursday amid growing anger from Tory backbenchers over Johnson's refusal to speed up the lifting of lockdown rules.