Minister advocates 'staycation'- from Brazil!

Tourism Minister Helen Grant has suggested people caught up in the passports fiasco caused by a massive backlog should holiday at home - as she poses for pictures at the World Cup in Brazil!

Ms Grant said she was “confident” that the backlog of 30,000 passport applications would be dealt with before people planned to go abroad this summer, but added that there was “a lot to be said for the ‘staycation’”.

Asked about the situation in an interview with the House magazine, Ms Grant said: "I'm in no doubt, I'm very confident that people will get their passports...but if they don't want to go away, we have some fantastic places to visit and holiday not that far from here.

"I think there's a lot to be said for the 'staycation'. People need to do what they like.

"I think we are going to have a great summer, we are certainly going to have a great summer of sport too, there's lots of opportunities to build your holiday around a spoilt-for-choice list of events, the Tour de France Grand Depart, we've got the golf, we've got the Commonwealth Games, we've got football that we can watch on the TV.

“It's a wonderful place to have your holiday," she added.