Lata boss blasts government after region overlooked in update

The boss of the Latin American Travel Association has launched a blistering attack on the government after no countries in the region were included in its latest traffic light update.

Seven countries including Canada will move to the green list from Monday, while Thailand and Montenegro will join the red list.

Lata chief executive Danny Callaghan said: “As usual, no positive news for Latin America in the changes to the traffic light gradings. Again, we have no clarity no how decisions are made – the government repeatedly talks about ‘following the data’, but that is not borne out by their actions.

“If we look at the actual data from the last 14 days, nowhere in mainland Latin America has case rates anywhere close to the UK’s. Remember when Brazil was the supposed epicentre of the world’s Covid problems? Well, their cases are running at only 30% of ours, whereas the USA is on a par with the UK.

“Maybe it’s to do with vaccination rates? But Chile is ahead of the UK on that, but still on the red list. And streets ahead of India, which made the amber list last time and has had its FCDO advice downgraded.

“Perhaps it’s to do with genomic sequencing? But latest figures show that the UK is sequencing a negligible amount of positive cases, so that’s clearly not important.”

Callaghan added: “The most telling evidence that the grading is a complete farce is how the announcements are made. [Transport secretary] Grant Shapps is not what you would call camera shy, yet for some reason announcements about travel, which impact thousands of lives and livelihoods, are made late in the day by Twitter.

“Why is Shapps so afraid of scrutiny over these announcements? Why not stand at a podium at Number 10 and confidently announce how the government is keeping us all safe?

“I imagine the announcements being tweeted from behind the sofa, avoiding the eye of the travel industry, like a child hiding from the gaze of the Daleks.

“Surely this utter shambles can only go on so long before we accept that Covid is here to stay, that there is nothing that comes after vaccination and that, for now at least, one of the riskiest places for Brits to be is here, in the UK.”