THE decision to abandon the travel testing system will increase the risk of importing new Covid-19 variants, a expert advising the government warned today.

From October 4, the green and amber categories of the government’s traffic-light system will be scrapped and replaced with a single reduced red list of countries, while those who are fully vaccinated will no longer need a test to return to Britain from non-red-list destinations. 

Travellers will also be able to take a cheaper lateral flow test, instead of a PCR test, on the second day of their return to Britain from the end of October. 

But Professor Stephen Reicher, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours, which feeds into the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said that the system should have been improved rather than abandoned. 

The psychologist said that the system of PCR tests for travellers has been “dysfunctional,” with companies charging absurd rates — up to hundreds of pounds in some cases. 

He told Sky News on Sunday: “I think it would have been far preferable to keep PCR tests but to improve the system and to do them through the NHS.

“I think it [the relaxation] is increasing risk. I think it does limit, in fact it stops, our ability to trace different variants and increases the probability of infected people coming into the country.”

Lateral flow tests cannot identify specific variants, unlike PCR tests, which can be used for genome sequencing. 

Prof Reicher said: “I think it has increased the risk, quite frankly, and I think we should have improved the system rather than, by and large, abandoning it.”

Other experts have also criticised the move. Professor of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick Lawrence Young said: “Letting our guard down runs the risk of bringing a new variant into the country such as the mu variant first identified in Colombia, which could reduce the effectiveness of current vaccines.”

The Scottish government has said it will drop the traffic-light system but will not follow England when it comes to testing requirements, and that PCR tests will still be required.

The Welsh government said it will consider the proposed changes, but Health Minister Eluned Morgan has warned that they could “weaken the line of defence on importing infection.”

Westminister announced the changes following pressure from airlines to ease travel restrictions.