British travellers to Jamaica and the Bahamas are no longer warned against non-essential travel.

The Foreign Office is reducing its “no-go” list so that it aligns more closely with Department for Transport (DfT) categories on Covid risks. Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Martinique, Palau, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Western Sahara are also no longer warned against.

The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said: “These updates make travel abroad easier – boosting trade, tourism and reuniting friends and families.

“I am delighted that the safe reopening of travel allows people to exercise personal responsibility and visit more destinations across the globe.”

A further 42 countries will follow on Monday 11 October when the red list – compiled by the Department for Transport (DfT) – reduces from 54 nations to seven.

Retaining day two tests for travellers returning to the UK is “effectively a travel tax”, travel PR CEO Paul Charles has tweeted.

“With most of the world open from Monday to the fully-jabbed, the travel sector can recover 70-80% of pre-pandemic business.

“But Day 2 tests are effectively a travel tax so we need a date set urgently for a move to cheaper antigen/lateral flow tests.”

Many industry figures are calling for clarity on the date from which fully vaccinated arrivals for the UK will be able to use lateral flow tests rather than more costly PCRs.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps told the BBC this morning that the Department of Health is working towards making the change for the “end of October”, but refused to name an exact date.

A British passenger was arrested and kicked off a London-bound Eurostar service for wearing the “wrong type of mask”.

French police boarded the train and hauled off the unidentified man in his forties in Lille, France, where the service made an emergency stop.

He was then surrounded by at least eight uniformed officers, before being stranded when the train resumed its journey to England.

Read the full story:

Simon Calder will answer your travel questions - 1pm today

Confused about what the changes to the red list from Monday mean for autumn/winter travel (can we actually go to Mexico, Thailand etcetera?) or when PCR tests might be switched to a cheaper lateral flow option?

The Independent’s travel expert Simon Calder will be online at between 1pm and 2pm today to answer your travel questions.

Whether it’s getting a steer on a winter sun holiday, decoding Grant Shapps’ comments this morning or something entirely different, Simon will do his best to answer as many of your questions, live, as he can in an hour.

Submit your questions in the comments section of this article, then follow live from 1pm:

More than 85,000 people have signed a petition calling for TFL to reinstate London’s Night Tube.

The 24-hour service, running from Friday evenings to Sunday evenings, was launched in 2016 to great fanfare, but closed last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In the wake of the murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa, women in London are now campaigning for the late-night service to be reinstated.

Ella Watson, who launched the petition, says the lack of night time underground services is forcing women to pay for expensive taxis home when they feel unsafe walking or taking night buses, a feeling that increases for many as the autumn nights get darker earlier on.

Read the full story:

Gary Lewis, CEO of Travel Network Group has reacted to the government’s latest update to the travel rules, saying that while it’s good news, travel businesses are still suffering having “lost their lifeline”.

“The news of simplified travel rules and the removal of many tourist destinations from the red list are more than welcomed by the travel sector, and we hope that these changes will encourage bookings for the all-important October half-term period. Our members are anxiously hoping for an increase in bookings in the short term. The environment for the travel industry is still uncertain, holidaymakers are still hesitant, with those who are not fully vaccinated facing many obstacles to their journeys, and even those who are fully vaccinated having to complete costly PCR tests once they arrive back in the UK, making travelling abroad more expensive,” read a statement from Lewis.

He said that travel firms had been “severely impacted by nearly eighteen months of government restrictions” and “uncertainty around travel”

“With the furlough scheme over and no alternative support, some businesses have lost their lifeline. Many travel business owners are now having to balance cash flow with the wage bills of their staff, whilst the numbers of people travelling are still below pre-2020 levels,” added Lewis.

"We have said this previously - despite funding being available, our members are reporting inconsistencies in local authority grants available to them and the travel sector is still not recognised as at risk. We continue to lobby the government and ask for a dedicated ‘Travel Business Grant’ , that would enable people to keep their businesses afloat and support their families.”

The Travel Network Group represents more than 1,200 travel businesses in the UK.

Confused about what the changes to the red list from Monday mean for autumn/winter travel (can we actually go to Mexico, Thailand etcetera?) or when PCR tests might be switched to a cheaper lateral flow option?

The Independent’s travel expert Simon Calder will be online at between 1pm and 2pm today to answer your travel questions.

Whether it’s getting a steer on a winter sun holiday, decoding Grant Shapps’ comments this morning or something entirely different, Simon will do his best to answer as many of your questions, live, as he can in an hour.

Submit your questions in the comments section of this article, then follow live from 1pm:

The transport secretary has made an extraordinary claim about flights between the UK and the US.

Grant Shapps told Times Radio: “It’s the world’s busiest route actually, by the way, the transatlantic route, so it’s very important to the airlines, as well as families and friends getting together again.”

While the coronavirus pandemic has affected all international air routes, especially between the UK and the US, his claim appears completely unsupportable.

A survey from July 2017 conducted by RoutesOnline found that all but two of the world’s 20 busiest international air routes were within Asia – with the list topped by Hong Kong-Taipei, Jakarta-Singapore and Kuala Lumpur-Singapore.

The only non-Asian connections were both within Europe: Moscow to Simferopol in Crimea, which is regarded by Russia as a domestic flight even though it lands in occupied Ukraine; and Dusseldorf to Palma de Mallorca.

The Independent has asked the Department for Transport (DfT) for the data to back Mr Shapps’s claim.

Thomas Cook chief executive Alan French has responded to the government’s changes to the red list, saying that while it is “good news for both ourselves and our customers” more clarity is needed if travel firms are to recover this winter.

Speaking to LBC, French said that while winter holidays are now a reality for many, “most of the holiday season” has passed for a struggling travel industry.

“I think if people are starting to plan for the winter sun break, which is really around Christmas time, again, way more options than they had before, much better deals, so we are upbeat about that,” he said.

“But those are, in all honesty, slightly smaller parts of our business than the summer, which is obviously behind us.”

French said that the industry needs more “clarity” from the Transport Secretary on the timeline for changes to PCR testing in particular.

“If there was one thing that I would like from Grant Shapps, it’s clarity as to what’s going on, when things are going to change, and give us some notice,” he said.

“Even if there has to be a provision in there that says if something goes wrong it might change, but at least give us a road map of activities that we can plan for, that’s what we really would like.”

The transport secretary has said that that he “very much hopes” next summer will be free of tests and restricted-country lists for travel.

Grant Shapps told Times Radio: “Having gone through this two years in a row, two summers in a row and, like many other people, experienced the shortcomings of a system that was able to change so quickly, I really do hope that this is the world going back to normal.”

Mr Shapps said that the vaccine is “the answer”, adding “The vaccine is the thing that’s enabled us to make these big changes on international travel.”

Asked if next summer might revert to a “testless, traffic light-less” style of travel, he said: “I very much hope so”.