red list of countries, the ones facing the strictest travel restrictions. here�*s the press release. it went on... the delta variant wasn�*t mentioned, nor was india. it wasn�*t on the list, which begged the question — why? well, one possible explanation was politics, that borisjohnson had a trip to india in late april that he didn�*t want to cancel. weeks later, the sunday times reported... the theory goes, the trip would have helped. the government�*s never accepted that. what is beyond dispute, though, is that by mid april, the pressure on borisjohnson was building. 0ne leading public health academic said india being off the red list was "frankly insane".