Spain’s PM criticises UK’s decision to impose blanket quarantine as ‘error’

Spain’s prime minister has criticised the UK government’s sudden decision to impose a blanket quarantine to all regions of the country following a spike in coronavirus infections as an “error”.

Despite intense lobbying from Madrid, the Foreign Office last night toughened its travel advice for the European country, extending its all but essential travel warning to the popular Balearic and Canary Islands. The advice has applied to mainland Spain since Saturday evening.

Speaking to the Spanish television network, Telecinco, Pedro Sanchez said: “The error, in my judgement, and hence the lack of alignment of the United Kingdom’s response, is based on considering the cumulative incidence of (the virus in) the entire country”.

He added: “We are talking with British authorities to try to get them to reconsider a measure that, in our opinion, is not well adjusted if we consider epidemiological criteria of Spain, particularly in some tourist destinations in our country.”

Pressed about the leader’s remarks, local government minister Simon Clarke told the BBC: “We respectfully disagree with Spanish government’s position on this.

“We obviously continue to work closely with them and we wish them every success in managing this outbreak, but we’ve seen a very sharp increase in cases in Spain. A 75 per cent increase in cases reported between the middle of last week and the end of last week. That’s why we took the action that we have.”

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