The European Union executive threw Britain a lifeline on Tuesday after it became stranded in Covid-19 isolation, recommending that EU members roll back sweeping border closures to allow freight to resume and let people return home for Christmas, Reuters reports.

Much of the world shut their borders to Britain after a mutated variant of the novel coronavirus was discovered spreading swiftly across southern England, halting a chunk of trade with the rest of Europe and leaving truckers stranded.

With queues of trucks snaking to the horizon in England and supermarket shelves stripped just days before Christmas, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson scrambled to get French President Emmanuel Macron to lift a ban on freight from Britain.

Britain has been trying for at least 24 hours to hash out a deal with France to allow the Dover-Calais route to open.