Grant Shapps postpones private meeting with Advantage chief

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has postponed a meeting with Advantage Travel Partnership’s chief executive as German chancellor Angela Merkel is in the UK for talks.

Last month, Julia Lo Bue-Said secured a private meeting with Shapps, who is her local MP in the parliamentary constituency for Welwyn Hatfield.

She had been writing to him for months, asking for a meeting, and had ramped up to daily emails ahead of the Travel Day of Action on June 23.

The pair had been scheduled to meet on Friday (July 2) but the meeting is now being rearranged for a later date as Shapps will be meeting Merkel.

She told Travel Weekly: “Clearly, it is really disappointing, given we have waited so long to have a meeting.

“It would have been a great opportunity to talk directly about the issues we face.”

More: More detail of vaccination recognition ‘in next few days’, says PM

Advantage chief executive secures meeting with Grant Shapps

She said there has been a “groundswell” of support from backbench MPs following the Travel Day of Action.

“We had about 50 MPs engage with us that day – the support is there and it is growing,” she said.

“We need to continue influencing, discussing and engaging with MPs.

“We are seeing restrictions easing across the world – our counterparts in the US are seeing 2019 levels of domestic travel, which is quite extraordinary compared to here.

“And Europe is opening up for US travellers. We are so far behind, it’s untrue.

“We’re hearing positive noises but we have to see some action soon – the data supports it too.”

She said issues such as the confusion over Malta entry requirements showed the importance of international cooperation on travel rules.

“We need to build confidence and we need clarity, as there are so many changes happening,” she said.

“Expanding the green list or having double-vaccinated [people] not quarantining is OK but we need lots to align in order to be confident.

“With Merkel, it sounds positive as travel is on the agenda. It is important for Europe as well as us.”

During a press conference on Friday (July 2), Merkel said Germany is “continuously reviewing” its Covid travel restrictions.

She said Germany had introduced restrictions in response to the Delta variant, which she said was now spreading “very rapidly” in her country.

“We are reviewing continuously our travel restrictions and we think that in the foreseeable future those who have received double jabs will then, according to our classification – and now Britain obviously is a high incidence area – will be able to travel again without having to go into quarantine,” she said.