IT has been predicted that only eight countries around the world will be included on the Government's 'green list' for foreign travel from May 17.

The Government's Global Travel Taskforce is currently drawing up the system for categorising countries ahead of the foreign travel ban being lifted on May 17 the earliest.

However, new analysis by a former strategy chief at British Airways has suggested only eight countries will be on the list.

Travellers coming back from green list countries will have to take a test before departing and within two days of arriving in the UK, but will not need to quarantine - unless they test positive.

The analysis, by Robert Boyle, has found only eight countries would make the list based on vaccination rates, levels of Covid infection, variants and genomic sequencing capacity.

The countries on Mr Boyle's 'green list' are: Australia, Gibraltar, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Malta, New Zealand and the United States of America.

However he thinks Australia and New Zealand are unlikely to permit visitors from outside the antipodean area in May, with the most likely destinations to resume travel quickly being Gibraltar and Israel.

He said: “The surest case for green must be Gibraltar. It has essentially zero cases of any type and the population is fully vaccinated.

“Israel must be the next most likely. Again, it has vaccinated close to its entire population and case numbers are below even last year’s threshold.”

Mr Boyle's report predicts the bulk of Europe, including tourist hotspots of Spain and Greece, will be on the amber list - requiring a pre-departer test, ten day quarantine, and tests on day two and day eight of quarantine, but people can get tested on day five to end quarantine early.

The Government has said it is "too early to say" which category countries will be put into, but it will confirm which countries are on which list in early May, as well as if international travel will return on May 17.