PM 'concerned' as Travelodge boss cancels MP meeting

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was "very concerned" to hear a meeting with MPs was cancelled by the chief executive of Travelodge.

The hotel chain is under fire after a guest was sexually assaulted by a man who had been given a key card to her room, by staff.

Kyran Smith was jailed in February for seven-and-a-half years following the attack at a Travelodge in Maidenhead, Berkshire, in December 2022.

Chief executive Jo Boydell apologised to the victim, adding the company has made "immediate changes" to its door key policy.

She said that she had a "productive and helpful meeting" with MPs and ministers on Monday, including Jess Phillips MP, Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls.

She said they have commissioned an independent review, which will look at the "lessons" they can learn and how they can improve room security and staff training "including a specific focus on violence against women and girls".

Boydell has not commented on the cancelled meeting with MPs but Labour's Matt Bishop raised the issue at Prime Minister's Questions, to which Sir Keir said the meeting "needs to go ahead".

Bishop, MP for Forest of Dean, said: "The CEO of Travelodge has today, again, refused to attend a meeting with wider members of this House and the other place to answer serious concerns about guest safety and safeguarding.

"This refusal only deepens the lack of trust in the company's commitment to protecting women and vulnerable guests.

"Will the Prime Minister meet with me and invite the CEO of Travelodge to discuss the issue, and will he join me in urging the CEO to explain directly to all parliamentarians why she is unwilling to face scrutiny on such an important matter?"

The Prime Minister replied: "Our thoughts are obviously with the victim.

"I was very concerned to hear that the CEO of Travelodge cancelled the meeting with MPs, and I would urge them to reconsider. That meeting needs to go ahead with relevant MPs and with the relevant minister, and the sooner it goes ahead, the better.

"I hope that the CEO of Travelodge is listening to this exchange. I thank him for raising it."

Smith, from Staines, Surrey, had lied to reception staff, telling them he was the victim's boyfriend.

He had been at the same party as the victim before they and others retired to their rooms.

The victim, who wishes to stay anonymous said staff told her Smith had passed their security checks by providing her name.

She told the BBC that Travelodge had "ample opportunity to deal with the case better" but "took a very long time to reply to me and didn't really take it very seriously".

"It was escalated in their company a little bit... but they still didn't take the right precautions to deal with the situation," she said.

Travelodge initially offered the victim a £30 refund, which she described as "insulting", before the company issued an apology.

The victim said: "You need to then think, OK, that's not what should have happened, what can we do better to make sure that doesn't happen again?"