Do quarantine exemptions for business tycoons ‘take the piss’?

Downing Street has been accused of setting “one rule for those at the top and another for everyone else” after lifting Covid quarantine requirements for foreign business executives who travel to England.

Who is exempt?

The Department for Business announced yesterday that senior international or multinational executives arriving from amber list countries can now “temporarily leave quarantine” if they are “undertaking business activities which are likely to be of significant economic benefit to the UK”.

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These activities are defined as those that have a “greater than 50% chance of creating or preserving at least 500 UK-based jobs”, either through investments in an existing large business or the establishment of a new large business within two years of the visit.

So execs attending a routine board meeting would not be eligible, for example, but a meeting to decide whether to make a new investment in a UK plant could qualify as an “eligible activity”.

The business bosses need written permission from the government, and any meetings or visits must be “Covid secure”. Meetings that can be done remotely are not exempt and all travellers must still take Covid tests before and after their arrival.

Why now?

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is believed to have backed the change “due to concerns the UK was missing out on major investments and new jobs because of current quarantine rules”, reports The Guardian.

The prime minister’s official spokesperson said yesterday that “protecting public health is our number one priority and that’s why those exemptions will only apply in truly exceptional circumstances”.

The rule change is a “boost for the City”, says The Telegraph, and was agreed amid growing alarm about “a post-Brexit charm offensive on top US banks from French president Emmanuel Macron”.

“There was consternation in Whitehall after J.P. Morgan boss Jamie Dimon met Mr Macron in Paris on Tuesday, but snubbed the UK because of its strict travel rules,” according to the paper.

Sources reportedly said that banks and lobby groups had also pushed the government for a rule change after France, Italy and other European countries introduced waivers.

“We were beginning to look like an outlier and less interested in jobs and investment to fuel the recovery,” a “senior City executive” told The Telegraph.

Wavering support

Several business groups have criticised the government for excluding small and medium-sized companies from the exemption rules. UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls told the BBC that the waivers need to be expanded to include workers such as those in hospitality “who are currently unable to return to the UK due to the cost and hassle of current quarantine requirements”.

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner was more scathing, tweeting that the exemptions plan “just takes the pi**” and is an “offensive slap in the face” to “the lowest-paid working people who have got our country through this crisis”.

“Yet again it is one rule for those at the top and another for everyone else. This makes a total mockery of the sacrifices of the British people during this pandemic and this double standard is an insult to frontline workers that the British people will rightly be disgusted by,” she wrote.

The Guardian points out that the waiver was announced on the same day that the UK reported a doubling in new Covid cases, up from 11,625 last week to 20,479.

The unveiling of the controversial plan also comes amid “disquiet at perceived double standards for influential guests and dignitaries after sponsors and officials from Uefa and Fifa were allowed into the UK for Euro 2020 without having to quarantine”, says the BBC.