While in Brazil Tory minister suggests ‘staycation’ for those caught up in passport crisis

In the midst of the passport backlog (an estimated 500,000 applications are outstanding, which the PCS say are due to job cuts) Helen Grant, Minister for Sport and Tourism, has suggested British people stay in the UK this summer.

She explained that although she’s “very confident that people will get their passports”, they might want to think about  staying in the country, or as she phrased it, taking a “staycation”. Not exactly a consistent message.  She went on to say:

“If they [British people] don’t want to go away, we have some fantastic places to visit and holiday not that far from here. I think 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 spoilt-for-choice list of events, the Tour de France Grand Depart, we’ve got the golf, we’ve got the Commonwealth Games, we’ve got football that we can watch on the TV. It’s a wonderful place to have your holiday”

The irony is she doesn’t seem to be taking her own advice. Grant, isn’t watching the World Cup on the TV; in her ministerial capacity she’s currently on a trip to Brazil, funded by the tax-payer, and she is said to be planning a personal holiday to Spain this year.

Shadow Immigration minister David Hanson has contributed to the debate, rightly pointing out to the Daily Mirror that Grant’s comments miss the point:

“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 their holidays abroad.

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.”