First couple to be released from 10-day quarantine at £1,750 ‘prison’ hotel celebrate by going straight to McDonald’s

: "I was thinking of having a poster on the wall where I could just cross one day off each day.

"I just want to go back to Birmingham to my home and my family and put this all behind me. I should never have been here in the first place. I had a negative test when I left Dubai.

"I'm really glad that my release day is nearly here."

Another traveller, Zari Tadayon, 66, from north London, said she was "relieved" her quarantine was almost completed after arriving from Dubai last Monday.

She previously said she was unprepared for her stay and had not packed any books, adding: "How I'm going to cope I don't know. It's going to be tough."

The Prime Minister said last week he expects those in quarantine to be able to "cover their costs" when asked what happens if a person has to extend their stay after a positive test.

Boris Johnson said: "It is currently illegal to travel abroad for holidays anyway.

"We would expect people who are coming in from one of these red list countries to be able to cover their costs."

Paul Lincoln, the director general of Border Force, said there were 1,200 people in the managed hotels.

He told the Commons Home Affairs Committee: "In broad terms there are about 14,000 or 15,000 people coming into the country on any given day - that is now about 95 per cent down from what we would have seen at this time routinely in previous years."

More than 100 people a day have been forced into the quarantine hotels since the scheme began, according to Border Force.

Mr Lincoln said that "about a third or more" of them would be hauliers coming into the country and about a third of those are British citizens.

The Government has insisted the scheme was brought in to prevent the spread of further Covid-19 variants in the UK and help officials to track any new cases which might arrive into Britain.

Some of the travellers forced to stay in the quarantine hotels have taken to TripAdvisor to complain about “disgusting” meals and “basic” rooms.

One wrote: “I don’t like to write bad reviews however I find disrespectful what this hotel is doing to its guests.”

Another added: “Someone somewhere is making a lot of money out of us forced to stay here,” they added. “I cannot wait to get out of this hell hole.”