Why ministers are worried about foreign holidays this summer

On 5 April, the government will publish its framework for deciding what foreign travel will be allowed this summer. As I say in the Times today, there is very little optimism in Whitehall about European holidays this summer. This might seem odd given that every adult will have been offered at least their first dose by then. Surely the vaccine should allow us to go abroad even to places where there is Covid in circulation? But not if the worry is about a vaccine-evading variant being imported into the country. As one of those involved in devising the way out of lockdown puts it: 

‘Variants of concern are the one big threat to the whole programme. If you get a vaccine resistant strain, then we are up the creek.’

The nightmare scenario is that all the restrictions are removed and then a vaccine-evading variant emerges and rips through the population.