Julian lobbies Business Secretary for travel sector support and against summer holiday ban
March 23, 2021
Today in the House of Commons, Julian pressed the Business Secretary to provide targeted support to travel businesses if the government maintains the current covid holiday travel restrictions through the summer.
In recent days, Ministers have refused to rule out retaining travel restrictions, despite the success of the government vaccination programme, with half of all adults now given a first dose, and vaccination on track be offered to all groups accounting for 99% of preventable deaths by 15th April.
At Questions to the Secretary of State for Business, Kwasi Kwarteng, Julian asked:
“Can the Secretary of State assure me that if the government takes the very draconian decision to ban summer holidays abroad this year, they will provide targeted support to compensate the travel sector, that will be decimated by this decision?”
Kwasi Kwarteng replied by stressing that one of the biggest requests from the travel and hospitality sector had been a roadmap for relaxing restrictions, which the government published in February, and that the government had provided £407 billion to support the economy through the pandemic.
The Business Secretary also said he was very happy to meet Julian Sturdy to discuss what further actions he wanted to see to assist the travel sector.
After leaving the Commons, Julian said: “ I am glad Kwasi Kwarteng is ready to meet and listen to my suggestions for compensating travel businesses in York and elsewhere, in the terrible event they are clobbered with the cancellation of the summer overseas travel season.
I will certainly follow this up, but will also continue to push for the government to avoid this unwise decision altogether, which the ongoing vaccination programme should render unnecessary.”
