UK nationals and residents returning from "red list" countries will be placed in quarantine in government-provided accommodation - such as hotels - for 10 days, Boris Johnson has told MPs.
The prime minister said the new measures are aimed at preventing new mutant COVID strains from reaching the UK.
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He told MPs: "I want to make clear that under the stay at home regulations, it is illegal to leave home to travel abroad for leisure purposes.
"And we will enforce this at ports and airports by asking people why they are leaving and instructing them to return home if they do not have a valid reason to travel.
"We have also banned all travel from 22 countries where there is a risk of known variants including South Africa, Portugal and South American nations.
"And in order to reduce the risk posed by UK nationals and residents returning home from these countries, I can announce that we will require all such arrivals who cannot be refused entry to isolate in government provided accommodation, such as hotels, for 10 days without exception.
"They will be met at the airport and transported directly into quarantine."
Mr Johnson said the Department of Health and Social Care was working to establish quarantine facilities "as quickly as possible".
Home Secretary Priti Patel, setting out the new measures, later told MPs "there are still too many people coming in and out of our country each day".
She said the further action was aimed at reducing "passenger flow so that only a small number of people for whom it is absolutely essential to travel are doing so and therefore reducing the risk to our world-leading vaccine programme".
It is understood travellers will have to pay to isolate in a monitored hotel, with coronavirus testing carried out during their stay.
The move has been widely anticipated in recent weeks, with critics arguing the government should have taken tougher action sooner.
They have pointed to the examples of Australia and New Zealand, who have had mandatory quarantines since the early weeks of the pandemic and have largely eliminated transmission of the virus within their borders.
Reports in recent days have emerged of competing views in government over how wide ranging the mandatory quarantine should be.
It has been suggested that some ministers have been arguing the mandatory quarantine should apply to arrivals for all countries, while others have been advocating targeting certain nations deemed to pose more of a risk.
Labour has been calling for a blanket quarantine requirement, arguing that not applying it to all travellers would leave "gaping holes in our nation's defences against different strains of the virus emerging around the world".
The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford told Mr Johnson that "both the Scottish and Welsh governments want to go further on quarantine measures than what his UK government is proposing".
He called on the prime minister to "stop his half measures" and introduce "stricter enforcement on international travel".
A Welsh government spokesperson said: "We have agreed on the need for a joint approach between the four nations of the UK and the Republic of Ireland to strengthen border health measures, in order to prevent the further spread of coronavirus.
"However, we do not believe the approach as set out by the UK Government goes far enough.
"Further discussions on the details of the proposals will take place as soon as possible."
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMifmh0dHBzOi8vbmV3cy5za3kuY29tL3N0b3J5L2NvdmlkLTE5LXVrLXRvLWludHJvZHVjZS1tYW5kYXRvcnktaG90ZWwtcXVhcmFudGluZS1mb3ItdHJhdmVsbGVycy1mcm9tLXJlZC1saXN0LWNvdW50cmllcy0xMjIwMDMzONIBggFodHRwczovL25ld3Muc2t5LmNvbS9zdG9yeS9hbXAvY292aWQtMTktdWstdG8taW50cm9kdWNlLW1hbmRhdG9yeS1ob3RlbC1xdWFyYW50aW5lLWZvci10cmF2ZWxsZXJzLWZyb20tcmVkLWxpc3QtY291bnRyaWVzLTEyMjAwMzM4?oc=5
2021-01-27 14:24:33Z
CBMifmh0dHBzOi8vbmV3cy5za3kuY29tL3N0b3J5L2NvdmlkLTE5LXVrLXRvLWludHJvZHVjZS1tYW5kYXRvcnktaG90ZWwtcXVhcmFudGluZS1mb3ItdHJhdmVsbGVycy1mcm9tLXJlZC1saXN0LWNvdW50cmllcy0xMjIwMDMzONIBggFodHRwczovL25ld3Muc2t5LmNvbS9zdG9yeS9hbXAvY292aWQtMTktdWstdG8taW50cm9kdWNlLW1hbmRhdG9yeS1ob3RlbC1xdWFyYW50aW5lLWZvci10cmF2ZWxsZXJzLWZyb20tcmVkLWxpc3QtY291bnRyaWVzLTEyMjAwMzM4
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