Immigration minister is lying, says travel industry
Embattled immigration minister Damian Green has lost the confidence of the travel industry following his handling of the Heathrow airport crisis.
A TravelMole survey revealed that the vast majority of readers don’t trust the minister to have immigration desks at Heathrow fully staff in time for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Green said last week that 80 extra staff would be recruited and a mobile team would be available to help process the extra 660,000 passengers expected to fly into Heathrow airport for the Games.
The pledge came following days in which immigration queues for non-EU arrivals were so long that some passengers were forced to wait in line for up to three hours.
While Green blamed bad weather for the queues, claiming that it had caused flight delays, he said more staff would be drafted in this summer to ease the problem.
However, 85% of those who responded to the TravelMole survey said they didn’t believe him.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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