MP asks Prime Minister for more support for tourism industry

A South Cumbria MP has asked the Prime Minister for more help for the tourism and hospitality industry, which is in financial danger due to coronavirus.

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP and former Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, urged Boris Johnson to provide financial support for businesses in Cumbria to take them through to next spring.

Speaking during PMQs, Mr Farron said: “The virus effectively turned summer in to winter for Cumbrian tourism.

“Ending government funding in October though, will mean three winters in a row, causing severe hardship on top of the already 312% increase in unemployment locally.

“So will the Prime Minister provide a support package for tourism and hospitality in the Lakes, the Dales and elsewhere, to see them through to the spring of 2021?”

In response the Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “We’re certainly looking at all sorts of packages to help the tourism industry over the winter period so that their winter as it were can be a kind of summer when we can get things open again.

“There will be all sorts of packages, but I don’t want to extend the schemes that we currently have.”