It is unfair that new coronavirus restrictions in England will not include legal travel restrictions, Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP Liz Saville Roberts has said.

Unlike in Wales, people living in areas of high transmission in England are not subject to legal travel restrictions.

Prime Minister Boris Johnston announced a new three-tier system of local restrictions in England yesterday (12 October), listed as medium, high, and very high.

Plaid Cymru has called for measures to include travel restrictions in law to restrict travel from high infection areas in England, but in answer to Ms Saville Roberts, Mr Johnson said the guidance would specify people should not travel, and restrictions would not be based in law, as is the case in Welsh lockdown areas.

Welsh Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said there is evidence of transmission of Covid-19 as a result of people coming from high infection areas of England into Wales.

However, the Welsh Government has so far failed to implement measures to restrict travel into Wales.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Ms Saville Roberts said: “People from Conwy, with 122 cases per 100,000, are not permitted by Welsh law to make non-essential journeys into Meirionnydd next door, where cases stand at 18 per 100,000.

“Yet people in Liverpool, with 600 cases per 100,000 can still go on holiday in Gwynedd and Ynys Môn.

“People in Wales are asking the Prime Minister: how is this fair?”

The Prime Minister said guidance was clear that people should not travel from very high-risk areas.

Speaking afterwards, Ms Saville Roberts said: “It now seems people will be asked nicely by the Prime Minister not to go on holiday from areas of high infection, but this does not go far enough and is clearly unfair to people subject to restrictions within Wales.

“People are rightly concerned that there is growing evidence that outbreaks in Wales are linked to the unrestricted movement of people from high transmission areas of England.

“The First Minister Mark Drakeford must now stop dithering on this matter and immediately use his powers to control the spread of the virus into Wales.”