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Abta rebukes Shapps over flippant comments on agents

Government
James Chapple
10 May 2021

Abta has criticised transport secretary Grant Shapps for his "ill-judged and ill-informed" comments on travel agents made at a government press conference on Friday (7 May).

Shapps announced his bid for leadership over the weekend (Credit: BBC News)

During the address, Shapps set out how countries would be categorised under the UK government’s new traffic light system, revealing an initial "green list" of just 12 countries.


Press by Sky News’ Paul Kelso on travel companies’ perceived track record during the Covid crisis, and how they would interpret the new rules, Shapps made reference to businesses he described as "what people would have called travel agents, perhaps in the past" sparking ire from agents across the UK.