Parmjit Dhanda, Executive Director of Back Heathrow, a community group supporting the expansion of Heathrow Airport, has warned Boris Johnson that government measures to impose a 14-day quarantine on air passengers arriving in the UK risks a jobs meltdown for local people, including many living in the Prime Minister’s own constituency.

Mr Dhanda said: “Up to 25,000 local people working at Heathrow are facing redundancy. The airport and airlines operating here have been hit hard by the Covid crisis, but the government is making things even worse through its crude and clumsy 14-day quarantine plan.”

Calling on Boris Johnson and Home Secretary, Priti Patel, to scrap the ill-thought through quarantine plans and take a smarter, targeted approach Mr Dhanda said: “The government must move quickly to reopen aviation, for unless imminent steps are taken, such as opening airbridges to low risk countries, west London could collapse into an economic wasteland.

“The boss of Heathrow Airport has said loud and clear that he’s had to cut a third of the operating costs and a third of the airport’s management costs, and now I’m told front line staff are in the firing line. I can’t believe the Prime Minister is prepared to sit idly by while family after family in his own backyard face losing the jobs of their main bread-winner.”