May said the best way to “get the economy moving again was to get planes flying again”. But she added that failing to introduce testing at airports showed the UK was “lagging behind” more than 30 other countries that have already introduced Covid airport testing.

“Testing has to be the way forward but airports are not even permitted to trial tests on passengers,” May said during a debate on supporting the aviation sector in the House of Commons.

“Far from leading the world, the UK has been lagging behind – Japan has been testing since April.”

She also named countries such as Germany, France, Austria and Iceland as among those already to have introduced airport testing for the coronavirus.

“We have to see testing introduced in our airports,” added May. “Test on arrival and test a few days later to reduce the quarantine.

“Give our airports permission to trial tests. Stop the UK dragging its feet, set the standard for the rest of the world.”