Travel sector angry at Grant Shapps' 'misleading' advice against holidays

Transport secretary’s warning not to book holidays in the UK or abroad because of Covid puts jobs at risk and confuses tens of thousands of UK holidaymakers, say industry bosses

The much-anticipated great British summer may have been greatly exaggerated, if comments made on Wednesday by transport secretary Grant Shapps are anything to go by.

Just weeks after cabinet colleague Matt Hancock suggested that 2021 would be a bumper year for British holidays, and revealed he’d booked his own in Cornwall, Shapps advised against booking any sort of trip, in the UK or abroad. Talking on the Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “On the shrinking chance that there is anybody listening to this interview at this stage, and thinking of booking a holiday under the current circumstances … please don’t go ahead and book holidays for something which, at this stage, is illegal to actually go and do, whether it’s here or abroad.”