The most popular destinations for British holidaymakers, including Spain and France, look set to be off limits this summer, with much of Europe failing to meet the Government’s criteria to make the new “green” list.

A traffic light system recommended by the Global Travel Taskforce looks likely to come into force in May governing where Britons can travel; those heading to countries labelled “green” will not need to quarantine on return.

But only a handful of nations will make the cut. The Government has said it will consider infection rates, variants prevalence and access to genomic sequencing, as well as vaccination rate, with the threshold possibly as high as 50 per cent.

As it stands, British travellers would only be able to visit Israel and Gibraltar, with the Maldives and the Seychelles soon to make the grade.

Spain, the country most visited by Britons, with 18 million trips in 2019, is a long way off, with a vaccination rate below 15 per cent. France (10 million trips) and Italy (5 million) also have some ground to make up for inclusion on the “green” list by the summer, with vaccinations rates at 15.6 and 13.8, respectively.

Scroll down for more updates