Speaking to Sky News, Keegan refused to rule out further additions to the UK’s red list, including destinations closer to home; last month, the red list was emptied for the first time in nearly a year when the seven remaining countries on the list were removed.

However, less than a month later, 10 southern African countries – chiefly South Africa – have since been placed back on the list due to the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, and Keegan said these were unlikely to be the last.

Prime minister Boris Johnson, health secretary Sajid Javid and transport secretary Grant Shapps have repeatedly insisted the red list and option to reintroduce hotel quarantine would be retained as part of a range of measures to guard against the arrival of new variants of Covid-19.

Several cases of the Omicron variant have been detected in the UK in recent days, with cases also popping up around the world.

Asked whether people in the UK could expect further travel restrictions, Keegan said the government would seek to "keep things goings" but refused to rule out European nations being added to the red list owing to Omicron.

“Obviously, we’ve put some more countries on the red list, but we’re not doing some things which would potentially shut travel down altogether,” said Keegan.

“The red list is reviewed every three weeks so we’ll continue to do that... if we get some flare-ups in cases then we’ll take immediate action.”