Rail chaos: Simon Calder on strikes and airport disruption

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Holidaymakers across the UK have faced major queues and delays when trying to get abroad, with issues predicted to persist long into summer. Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy appeared to square the blame at the PM and his Home Secretary, tweeting of his own experience: “Another morning, another horrid queue at airport security! This time at Stanstead. 

“Well done Boris Johnson. Top marks Priti Patel. Welcome to Backlog Britain”.

The MP for Tottenham was blasted for his remarks, with many arguing that the issues were not about Brexit, and were happening across Europe.

Former MP and staunch Brexiteer Kate Hoey responding: “You clearly haven’t been to Dublin airport recently! Much worse. They are in the EU so please stop turning everything into an anti Brexit tweet”.

Twitter user PippaP22 added: “Seriously?

“You are a potential future Foreign Secretary and you are unaware of similar problems at Schipol, Arlanda, Dublin and Palma Airports, to name just four?

“Clearly if you ever did get that job, attacking the UK would come before the truth.

MancunianCavia added: “If Brexit caused this issue, please explain why this is happening in Europe, America & almost everywhere else in the world?

“It’s almost like a pandemic came and loads of people were made redundant…and didn’t want to come back to sh** wages.”

Hundreds of staff and unions in airports across Europe have called for strikes, causing airlines to have to cancel their flights in popular holiday spots such as Portugal, France and Spain.

As Ms Hoey observed, Dublin airport is no different, with the Dublin Airport Authority stating there will be major challenges over summer.

However, others have pointed out both that Mr Lammy didn’t mention Brexit in his tweet, and that Brexit has been cited as a catalyst for delays as a result of staff shortages.

Former Labour MP Jacqui Smith replied to Ms Hoey, saying: “Come on Kate. He mentions the PM and the Home Secretary.

“You know from your time as a Minister in a Labour Govt that if this had been on our watch we’d have taken the blame and responsibility to sort it out!”

Meanwhile airline bosses have pointed to Brexit as a reason for a struggle to get sufficient staff.

Ryainair boss Michael O’Leary told AFP that “100 percent” of the woes experienced by air passengers in the UK — including massively long lines and cancelled flights — was because “Brexit has been a shambles”.

He said: “It was delivered by a government led by Boris Johnson that is also a shambles. It was inevitable that Brexit would constrain the labour market, you see.”

Meanwhile Easyjet’s executives said that while the airline was not struggling to hire staff, it had recently turned down around 8,000 EU applicants who were no longer eligible due to Brexit.

CEO Johan Lundgren said: “Pre-pandemic we turned down probably about 2percent of people for for nationality reasons … and that number is [now] about 35-40percent. So, of course the pool is smaller.”

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Meanwhile, Irish travellers may be enjoying some easier travelling than Brits post-Brexit, after many bragged about being able to breeze past agonising lines when arriving at European airports this summer.

One Twitter user wrote: “Massive queues for non-EU passport control at Malaga Airport yesterday morning.

“In less than a minute we Irish passport holders were waived through with a smile. If looks could kill!”

Another said: “Sailed through the Irish lane at Malaga yesterday. A couple of Brits off my plane attempted to follow me. That was fun.”

Videos on social media reveal long waits at Spanish holiday hotspots such as Majorca, Alicante and Malaga thanks to the extra passport checks introduced since Brexit.

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