Cop out: Why can Alok Sharma swerve Covid rules?

The ‘party elite’ narrative has resurfaced this morning, after the Daily Mail splashed its findings that COP26 president Alok Sharma has travelled to a grand total of 30 countries over the past seven months, skipping quarantine upon return.

Sharma is under pressure on two counts: first, that as the cabinet minister responsible for the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Scotland this November, his example of plane-hopping between nations doesn’t quite gel with the government’s message of reducing carbon emissions. But it’s the Covid element that really sticks. Thanks to loopholes in the legislation, ministers are exempt from quarantine measures when they arrive back in the UK. This includes returning from red list countries (Sharma is estimated to have visited six). While your average traveller has been forking out £1,750 for a government-sanctioned hotel quarantine — going up to £2,285 next month — Sharma returned a free man and reportedly met up with Prince Charles just one day after returning from red-listed Bangladesh.