The organisation tasked with boosting the North’s economy has joined other bodies representing business, education and employment in calling for a rethink in the Government’s quarantine rules for travellers arriving in the UK.

The Northern Powerhouse Partnership is one of 23 signatures alongside the likes of UKHospitality and Universities UK to write an open letter to the Home, Foreign and Transport Secretaries and urging an integrated plan.

The letter said: “Businesses across the country rely on the UK being connected to the global economy.

“Since March, international travel has slowed to a trickle. To the credit of companies up and down the country, not least in the aviation sector, the movement of essential goods has not been affected.

“However, as we look to recover from the economic shock that Covid-19 has delivered, it will be vital that we start to open the UK up to our trading partners.

It continued: “Over 1.5 million jobs across the UK are supported by air transport and more than 40 per cent of our trade with non-EU countries travels by plane.

“There are whole sectors of the UK economy - from SMEs to large employers - that simply won’t recover and thrive without international connections.

“Our manufacturers rely on air connections to export goods, our world-class universities get £6.9bn a year from international students, our tourism industry accounts for more than seven per cent of the UK economy and our hospitality sector relies on international visitors.”