'Ministers must recognise the power of their statements'

Transport secretary Grant Shapps, health secretary Matt Hancock and vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi have all offered differing, and sometimes contradictory, stances on travel in recent weeks, blurring the line between the current illegality of leisure travel and the perfectly legal act of booking future travel.

In an open letter to Shapps, Travel Counsellor Andy La Gette said that in one 10-second soundbite, in which Shapps told people not to book ahead, the transport secretary had delivered a "hammer blow" to the "complex and fragile" process of rebuilding the UK travel industry.

"Your words, magnified through the press, fall on nervous ears," said La Gette. "From your position, your words threaten to undo much of the work we have done in slowly and carefully trying to rebuild consumer confidence.
"Frankly, it is devastating, and entirely unnecessary."