BORIS Johnson has been urged to "sit up and listen" and close a travel loophole that could bring new variants of Covid into the UK.

It comes as Public Health England officials have written to Matt Hancock with concerns around variants detected in the UK being traced to European countries such as Germany, Portugal and Norway – none of which are currently on the UK government’s "red-list" of countries that requires passengers to enter into hotel quarantine.

UK residents and Irish nationals arriving in England from red list countries will have to quarantine in hotels selected by the government at a cost of £1750, with every additional adult, or child over 12, costing £650. Children aged five to 12 cost £325.

But in Scotland, all passengers on flights from overseas, except for Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, must isolate in one of the hotels.

READ MORE: Matt Hancock confident people can 'travel across the whole of the UK' this summer

A loophole means that travellers who have not come via a red list country can travel via the common travel area and are then allowed to self isolate for 10 days.

The concerns have renewed calls for the UK government to align with the Scottish Government’s approach that all passengers must quarantine at their first point of arrival, no matter what country they have flown in from.

Dr Philippa Whitford, the SNP’s shadow health spokesperson, said: "Warnings about the threat of new variants, from Public Health England, should make the UK government sit up and listen. Their quarantine system is not fit for purpose and has easily exploitable loopholes that need closed urgently.

“We know that despite Scotland eliminating almost all Covid strains last summer, international travel allowed new variants to be imported and contributed to the second wave in Scotland and the UK – we cannot risk that happening again.

“Everyone in Scotland and across the UK has made a collective effort to stop the spread of Covid and suppress the virus but we are in a fragile position and could easily see a third wave as suggested by the Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty.

“New, more vaccine-resistant, variants could put our route out of lockdown in serious jeopardy and it would be typical of this Tory government to jeopardise the progress of the vaccine programme because of its refusal to properly control UK borders.

“Boris Johnson must urgently review his red-list system and align with the Scottish Government’s approach of monitored hotel quarantine for everyone arriving into the UK, no matter which country they have travelled from.”

Earlier this month, Westminster was criticised for withholding the results of a completed review into its "red list" system from devolved nations.

READ MORE: Westminster 'withholding' completed review of red list Covid quarantine system

The Scottish Government has said it is following a more proactive than reactive approach by insisting on universal quarantine as it is impossible to predict where new, more dangerous variants of the coronavirus may emerge.

Giving evidence to Holyrood’s Health Committee, Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said: “The Joint Biosecurity Centre has already carried out a review of the existing countries and submitted a report to the UK Government on their review of the red list countries.

“However, to date, the UK Government have withheld that report from us.

“I've made representation to the UK Government on this matter, and I know colleagues from the other devolved nations made representations to the UK Government on this matter.”

Matheson said he was “continuing to press for that advice to be provided” and added: “There is a need for that to be addressed urgently.

“I made representations to the UK Government at the Covid-19 meeting just last week asking for that advice to be made available to us.

“But to date, it’s still not being provided.”