Fury as tourism minister says: If passport is held up, stay at home!
It’s all right for her... she’s in Brazil on a junket watching the World Cup
FOR all those Britons with an overseas holiday booked and paid for – but still waiting for their long- delayed passposts to drop through the letter box, it wasn’t the most tactful of remarks.
Tourism minister Helen Grant suggested they consider holidaying at home. In fact, she said, there was a ‘lot to be said for the “staycation”.’
To rub salt into the wound, the minister’s pronouncement emerged as she watched England take on Uruguay – in her other role as sports minister – in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Last night her intervention attracted a furious response with victims of the passport crisis denouncing her comments and ludicrous and appalling.
Earlier this week, Home Secretary Theresa May apologised to people whose travel plans had been disrupted by delays at the Passport Office – there is a backlog of around 30,000 applications
‘Support the British tourism industry’
– and unveiled a series of emergency measures to speed matters up.
Miss Grant, asked about the situation in an interview with political magazine The House, said: ‘ I’m in no doubt, I’m very confident that people will get their passports.
‘But if they don’t want to go away, we have some fantastic places to visit and holiday. I think there’s a lot to be said for the “staycation”. People need to do what they like.
‘We are going to have a great summer, we are certainly going to have a great summer of sport too, there’s lots of opportunities to build your holiday around a spoiltfor-choice list of events – the Tour de France Grand Depart, we’ve got the golf, we’ve got the Commonwealth Games. It’s a wonderful place to have your holiday.’
Government sources said it was clear Miss Grant, the MP for Maidstone and the Weald, had not been telling people where to holiday, but simply extolling the virtues of Britain as a destination. However, retired nurse Eileen Shepherd, 68 – who had to miss out on a £1,750 cruise after she was told the day before she was due to sail that her passport was not ready – said of Miss Grant: ‘How dare she tell us where to go on holiday? Cheeky sod. People will be gunning for her.’
Mrs Shepherd, of Darlington added: ‘ She is not living in the real world. It is appalling. Ministers have no business telling me where I can take a break.’
Martin Cook, 43, from Ipswich, only got his passport the day before he flew out to Prague for a weekend away with his wife Annabel last month, despite submitting his application four weeks earlier.
The BT project manager said: ‘Helen Grant’s comments are laughable. It is ludicrous. It is not her place to tell people where to holiday. If somebody has made their plans and put their passport application in in good time they should be able to travel where they like.’
Labour also condemned Miss Grant’s remarks. David Hanson, immigration spokesman, said: ‘What does she know that we don’t? Is this crisis going to last all summer? Holidays in Britain are fantastic but ministers shouldn’t be trying to divert attention from the chaos they created.
‘People need their passports for business, family funeral visits, residency permits and other personal reasons as well as holidays. Helen Grant should be on to the Home Office to get this sorted now, rather than telling families they won’t be going abroad any time soon.’
But Labour also risked embarrassment, after former minister Tom Watson appeared to agree with Miss Grant. ‘It’s already bad
‘They will be able to travel’
enough that holiday companies ramp up the cost of flights in school holidays,’ he said. ‘Perhaps the passport fiasco will encourage people to stay at home, to support the British tourism industry.’
Passport officials say they have been hit by the highest level of applications for 12 years, with the usual summer increase starting far earlier than usual.
David Cameron has said that anyone with imminent travel plans would be fast-tracked without charge. Applicants renewing from overseas will have a 12-month extension to their existing passport.
A Department for Culture, Media and Sport spokesman said: ‘Helen Grant was crystal clear that she was confident that people would get their passports to be able to travel overseas. As tourism minister it is completely right that she champions the domestic tourism market but she was in no way linking the two issues.’