Shapps was appointed to the transport role by Boris Johnson in 2019 before being sacked by Liz Truss in 2022. During his time in office, he was regularly pressed on the rationale behind the government’s various ill-fated pandemic-era travel restrictions, including the infamous traffic lights regime.
The government was accused of confusing consumers and the travel industry with the system, in particular those destinations designated amber, and by imposing quarantine rules on some countries but not others. Messages from Shapps’ department were often also inconsistent with those coming from the Foreign Office.
