Sir Keir Starmer has personally written to Travelodge’s CEO and warned she must “seriously engage with MPs” over concerns about women’s safety.The letter sent to Jo Boydell comes after a Berkshire hotel guest was sexually assaulted by a man who was wrongly given access to her room in 2022.
Attacker Kyran Smith, who had falsely claimed to be her partner, was jailed in February for seven and a half years, with the hotel forced to apologise for offering the victim £30 as compensation for what happened.Travelodge has since acknowledged that the response was “inappropriate”.Describing the attack in Maidenhead as “utterly appalling”, the prime minister has now told Ms Boydell that lessons must be learnt and that action must be taken to better protect guests.
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Kyran Smith was jailed in February. Pic: Thames Valley Police
His intervention is significant and comes a week after Ms Boydell refused an open meeting with MPs worried about Travelodge’s safety procedures.In the wake of the incident, the hotel has made some immediate changes and is due to carry out an independent investigation into what happened.Ms Boydell, after pressure from MPs, has also met with representatives of Sir Keir, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips. But she has refused to take questions from a larger group of MPs, leading to accusations of a lack of transparency and accountability.
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What has the PM said?
“This is a personal mission for me,” the prime minister has written to Ms Boydell.”No woman or girl should feel unsafe in this country, or fear for their life.”Violence against women and girls is a national emergency and, as such, demands that all of us take action to tackle it.”I welcome your recent meeting with several members of parliament. I was, however, very concerned that some MPs were not able to hear from you directly.”I urge you to seriously engage with MPs and my government to address the concerns that remain around best practice interventions for prevention, the training being made available, and the pace of Travelodge’s response.”
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Ministers are understood to be considering what legislative action could be taken, while there are also plans in place for cross-party talks with representatives from the hotel sector to discuss security practices.Victims’ minister Alex Davies-Jones has previously told Jattvibe that “nothing is off the table”, while it’s understood the chancellor has been intervening behind the scenes and has expressed an interest in leading any future safety summit.The two Labour MPs who have been leading the campaign, Matt Bishop and Jen Craft, are also working on a possible 10-minute rule bill that could toughen up hotel safety measures.Read more:Resident doctors to strikeControversy over McSweeney’s stolen phone
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How has Travelodge responded?In a previous statement, Ms Boydell said: “Travelodge takes this situation with the utmost seriousness, and that is why I met with MPs and ministers.”She went on: “We have made some immediate changes to our room access security policy, and have commissioned an independent review led by Paul Greaney KC, a leading barrister specialising in public inquiries concerning security, serious violent crime, and health and safety, to examine our room security procedures and the lessons we can learn from how this incident was handled.”We have also asked for the ministers’ recommendations on a leading violence against women and girls expert who can work closely with Paul on the review.”We have offered that all MPs interested in this important issue can feed into the independent review in writing so their contributions can be fully taken into account.”Our immediate priority is to progress this important work at pace, progressing our independent review and further strengthening our processes.”
