Portugal and Greece have retained their places on the Government’s quarantine exemption list despite pressure to remove them.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced there were no changes to the list on Thursday.

This comes after many holidaymakers booked flights home costing up to £554 to avoid a potential quarantine requirement.

People arriving in England from countries not on the travel corridor list are required to self-isolate for 14 days.

There was speculation that Portugal would lose its place due to a rise in coronavirus cases.

The Government was also under pressure to reimpose quarantine rules on arrivals from Greece after Scotland and Wales introduced restrictions earlier this week.

In recent weeks, the Department for Transport has announced changes to its quarantine exemption list every Thursday night, with the new rules being imposed every Saturday at 4am.

This has led to passengers rushing to return from destinations such as France, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

There were 23.0 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people in Portugal in the seven days to Wednesday, up from 15.3 a week earlier.

A seven-day rate of 20 is the threshold above which the UK Government has considered triggering quarantine conditions.

Mr Shapps said a number of other factors are taken into account in relation to the list, including the level of change in cases, extent of testing, and whether outbreaks are “contained”.