Any relaxation over the coming months of the UK's 14-day quarantine rule for people entering the country "will depend on progress", a government minister has said.

Housing minister Simon Clarke told BBC Breakfast the measure was a "temporary, time-limited matter", but said it was "absolutely vital...we do this as long as required".

He added that it was necessary to have the rule in place for now to avoid increasing the risk of a second spike "with new cases coming into the UK... [when] we are starting to get numbers coming down quite strongly in our own country".

Asked whether he had any summer holidays planned, Mr Clarke said he had been set to travel to Jersey in August but said, "I haven't got my bucket and spade out yet."

Meanwhile, former transport minister Stephen Hammond has called for the quarantine measure to be scrapped in favour of so-called air bridges between low-risk countries.

The Tory MP told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that air bridges would be a "sensible, targeted response".