FRANCE will ban all non-essential travel to and from Britain from this weekend.
The new rule is being brought in to slow the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant that is causing record numbers of cases in the UK, the French government said.
From midnight on Saturday (11pm Friday UK time) there will be a "requirement to have an essential reason to travel to, or come from, the UK, both for the unvaccinated and vaccinated".
"People cannot travel for touristic or professional reasons," the French government said in a statement.
"Faced with the extremely rapid spread of the Omicron variant in the UK, the government has chosen to reinstate the need for an essential reason for travel from and to the UK."
It added that French citizens and EU nationals could still return to France from the UK, and passengers will be able to transit through France if for less than 24 hours.
And Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he had spoken to his equivalent in the French government, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, and agreed that hauliers will be exempt from the new restrictions.
French government spokesman Gabriel Attal told BFMTV channel: "We will put in place a system of controls drastically tighter than the one we have already."
Attal said the policy was aimed at "tightening the net" to slow down the arrival of Omicron cases in France and give time for the French vaccination booster campaign to make more ground.
"Our strategy is to delay as much as we can the development of Omicron in our country and take advantage to push ahead with the booster drive," he said.
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British tourists banned from France from this weekend due to Omicron
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