UK PM forced to defend India travel ban timing over Delta variant in Parliament

London: Britain's Opposition Labour Party on Wednesday escalated attacks on the government's alleged delay in adding India to the travel ban "red list", which it claims led to a spike in the Delta variant infections in the UK.

During the weekly Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) session in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was forced on the defensive as he was confronted by Labour Leader Keir Starmer with dates linked with the detection of the Delta variant in India at the end of March.

Starmer accused Johnson of "indecision", which led to the UK now having the "highest infection rate in Europe" of the Delta variant and also resulted in a month-long delay to an end to lockdown until July 19.

Johnson retaliated by countering the allegations to reiterate that India was added to the travel ban list well before it was categorised as a variant of concern by Public Health England (PHE) on May 7.

"On 24 March, a new variant was reported in India. On 1 April, India was reporting over 100,000 new infections a day, and rising. But the Prime Minister kept India off the red list until 23 April. In that time, 20,000 people came into the UK from India," said Starmer.

"What on earth did the Prime Minister expect would be the consequences of that," he questioned.

Johnson fought back with his own dates and stressed that the high infection rates in the UK were due to a "better understanding" of the variants, with 47 per cent of the genomic testing in the world being done in Britain.

"I really think that the Leader of the Opposition should get his facts straight, because the Delta variant, as I have said, was identified in this country on 28 April, said Johnson.