Tourism minister Helen Grant has told Brits affected by passport delays that there’s a lot to be said for the ‘staycation’.
In an interview with House magazine, the Maidstone MP said she was confident people will get their passports in time, but if they don’t want to go away "we have some fantastic places to visit and holiday not that far from here".
She then promoted the various sporting events taking place in the UK this year, including the Tour de France Grand Depart, the golf, the Commonwealth Games, and the "football that we can watch on the TV".
Grant, who is reportedly planning a holiday in Spain later this year and who is currently in Brazil for the World Cup in her capacity as sports minister, made the comments as the number of passport applications waiting to be processed reached nearly 500,000.
Her words have angered consumer groups and the Public and Commercial Services union, which claims the passport crisis was due to job cuts.
"It is incredibly unhelpful while people are desperately trying to get hold of their passports for ministers to be making this sort of glib remark," said Richard Simcox, spokesman for the union.
"They should be focusing their efforts on sorting out the problem in the Passport Office. It is all very well for her to go off to Spain while suggesting people who can’t get hold of a passport should stay at home."
But Grant’s Tory colleagues came to her defence, saying that as tourism minister, she is right to champion the domestic tourism market, but claimed she was in no way linking this with the passport backlog.
Earlier this week, the Home Secretary Theresa May apologised for the delays and offered free ‘fast-track’ for imminent holidays.
