UK Parliament Will Debate Petition to Allow Red List Vaccinated Travellers to Isolate at Home

A petition to allow fully vaccinated people, coming from Red List countries, to isolate at home when they arrive in the UK, has successfully reached over 100,000 signatures and will therefore be debated by the UK Parliament.

The UK Parliament confirmed “Parliament will debate this petition” and set the date for 17 January 2022.

The petition, which was launched six months ago, the first time South Africa was put on the Red List, expired on Friday 10 December, just making it over the 100,000 threshold in time to earn the right for the issue to be debated in parliament.

The petition called for fully vaccinated people from red list countries to be allowed to isolate at home rather than in the government-approved hotel quarantine which is “very expensive and non affordable”. The petition said “people need to go to see their families. Doctors who work for the whole year need to see their parents” and that “there should be an exemption for fully vaccinated people and who had a negative PCR to isolate at their place of residence.”

Eswatini actor Richard E. Grant – who has been complaining on Twitter about the exorbitant costs of the quarantine he has been forced into – was one of many asked to retweet a message to his followers to help generate as many signatures as possible. The 64-year-old Withnail and I actor returned to London from visiting his 90-year-old mother in southern Africa, just after SA was put back on the Red List.

By deadline day, the petition had been signed by 104,001 people. Surprisingly, only 1,061 signatures came from people in South Africa. The overwhelming majority came from within the UK – a total of 100,607. Others came from around the world, including over 300 from India which has also spent much of the past year on the UK’s Red List.

Earlier in the campaign, in July 2021, the UK Department of Health and Social Care responded to the petition, saying: “Public health has always been our number one priority and we will not risk throwing away our hard-won achievements which have only been possible through the work of the British people.”

You can watch the debate live on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/UKParliament