IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL SUPPORT THEN, BORIS?

Never hit a man when he’s down – unless it’s the cruise industry you’re roughing up. That seems to be the policy following yesterday’s announcement from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office advising against all ‘cruise ship travel’ indefinitely.

This time last week, cruise lines took some comfort from the easing of travel restrictions to dozens of countries and have been busy promoting and selling trips for later in the year, with a few even planning to set sail toward the end of this month.

So what’s changed? Or is it the case that the FCO suddenly panicked? Or forgot all together to exclude cruising from its blanket announcement seven days ago?

What’s especially galling is that when asked on June 11 at the daily coronavirus briefing about what the Government was doing to protect jobs in the cruise sector, the Prime Minister said: ‘We will support it in any way we can.’

Some support. In fact, it’s a kick in the teeth, especially when only last Tuesday the EU Healthy Gateways’ Covid-19 guidance for cruise ships was published and when cruise companies have already put in place stringent measures to safeguard the health of passengers and crew.

The lack of clarity about travel has been one of the great failings of the Government during the coronavirus crisis – and this latest edict is no exception.

Presumably, the ban on cruising includes river cruises and yet many hotels have far more guests staying in them than does a river cruise ship.

And, officially, you can go on an excursion in, for example, France or Italy but can’t come back to your ship. The cruise industry is worth £10billion a year to the UK and more than two million people from the UK and Ireland – many of them Daily Mail readers – enjoy a cruise each year.

AT the very least, the FCO should come up with a clear and carefully considered road map. It should say that the new ban will be in place for the next month – during which only a tiny handful of cruises will be leaving their ports – and then it will be reviewed.

Many of the bigger cruise companies, such as P&O and viking, are pausing operations until October, but others, such as Hurtigruten have already restarted sailings in Norway.

This ban does nothing to build confidence and leaves those who have booked trips for later this year in limbo. The last thing cruise companies and their passengers need is further uncertainty.