Usually Grant Shapps is one of the Cabinet’s smoothest performers, and as a result finds himself rapidly deployed to the airwaves any time the Government is under fire, writes Michael Deacon.
Yesterday, however, he sounded increasingly weary, even exasperated, as the gripes and grumbles rained down upon him. MPs from all sides demanded greater clarity, quicker decisions, and more money to bail out the travel industry. Labour’s Ben Bradshaw was beside himself with frustration. “Why,” he barked, “are we less free now than we were last summer, when we didn’t have vaccines?”
Mr Shapps sighed. One of the many quandaries the Government was wrestling with, he tried to explain several times, was that children weren’t being vaccinated. But if only the vaccinated were allowed to travel and avoid quarantine on return, what were parents to do? They could hardly leave their children at home, could they?
Despite all the carping he had to contend with, Mr Shapps managed to keep his composure – until, that is, the third question from the end.
