"We need to protect the country from new variants," he said. "Hence the toughening that we took last month to measures at the border. "And we're on track to deliver on the stronger border measures still from countries, particularly of concern by next Monday." Holidays: "We need to protect the country from new variants," Hancock said (Image: BBC) READ MORE Hancock continued: "The reason it's important to get this set up now is that the proportion of cases coming from abroad at the moment is obviously very low, not least because it is currently illegal to go on holiday anyway."