Transport Secretary Grant Shapps got an angry response from travel agents when he tweeted that the Government had provided more than £4bn additional funding to Transport for London (TfL).

He added: “We’re committed to supporting London & being fair to national taxpayer.”

But agents demanded to know why there had been no sector specific Government support for the thousands of travel businesses since the start of the pandemic.

Richard Slater of Henbury Travel Agents replied: “It’s great that your propping up TfL, but what about the 1,000s of small travel agencies & their staff who haven’t been offered/given a single penny of sector specific financial support over the past 21 months, since travel has been stopped/restricted?”

Travel agents’ action group TARGET wrote: “But you have failed to support the travel industry that you have decimated.”

David Conitzer, another one of the many who responded to Mr Shapps’ tweet wrote: “Where is the targeted support for travel? It has been the only industry that has had restrictions placed on it continuously since covid began.”