Mark Drakeford has criticised the UK Government over its handling of the latest changes to international travel restrictions, describing it as “shambolic”.

Wales’s First Minister told a press conference on Friday that his Government has a different “view of the risks” around the easing of travel rules.

He said this is due to the increase in coronavirus cases witnessed last autumn, which was partly down to large numbers of people returning from other countries and “bringing the virus with them”.

Wales had delayed following England’s lead in relaxing travel restrictions, but confirmed on Thursday it too will bring in the major changes from 4am on Sunday, along with Scotland and Northern Ireland.

We would have had a different, a simpler system, one that was easier for people to understand

The changes include no longer requiring fully vaccinated passengers returning from France to quarantine.

India, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will be moved out of the red list, while Austria, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia join the green list.

Mexico, Georgia and the French overseas territories of La Reunion and Mayotte are being added to the red tier.

Welsh health minister Eluned Morgan has accused the UK Government of not consulting the devolved governments on the changes beforehand.

Mr Drakeford said: “I did think that the last week was pretty shambolic at the UK level – trying to get a sensible answer to a sensible question about the extent to which people were going to have to self-isolate, which countries were affected, how the system was to run in the future, was pretty hard to do and it seemed to change on a daily basis.

“We would have had a different, a simpler system, one that was easier for people to understand.

“One of the things that I think we have learnt, and certainly being advised from early on in the pandemic, is that you have to try to make what you are asking of people as simple and as easy to understand as it can be, because the more easily it can be understood, the more likely it will be the people will be able to follow it.

“I don’t honestly think you could say that the traffic light system measures up to those sort of criteria.”

Travel companies have said the changes are a “positive” step forward but Prime Minister Boris Johnson is being urged to open up travel, particularly in Europe, faster and to do away with expensive testing regimes.

While UK Transport Secretary Minister Grant Shapps has said there is a need for “continued caution”, Mr Johnson told broadcasters he wants people to go on holiday.

The PM said: “We want people to be able to travel, we want the travel industry to get going again, we want to see tourists coming back to our country – a very, very important part of our economy – but you’ve got to balance that against the need to protect ourselves against the pandemic.”