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Paula Bradshaw said her family had weighed it up and decided to proceed with the holiday. PA
covid19
Stormont health committee member cancels holiday in Italy following criticism
Paula Bradshaw is going to a resort in Italy with her family next week.
LAST UPDATE | 20 Jul 2020
STORMONT HEALTH COMMITTEE member Paula Bradshaw has said she will not go on a foreign holiday with her family this weekend, after criticism of her decision to travel against the executive’s guidance.
Bradshaw, who is the Alliance Party’s health spokesperson, had this morning defended her decision to go to an all-inclusive hotel in Italy with her family.
The South Belfast MLA insisted she was not breaking any laws or being disrespectful to anyone who was working to suppress the virus in Northern Ireland.
The executive’s coronavirus guidance is not to travel abroad unless it is essential.
“I’m not breaking any laws,” she had told BBC’s The Nolan Show this morning. “The guidance is there around all of those measures and we as a family have weighed it up.
If the holiday is cancelled, the holiday is cancelled but it’s our intention to proceed at this point.
She has since tweeted that she “should have been clearer” and that she now does not intend to go on the holiday.
“It is correct that I had initially booked to travel this Saturday, but my journey is not ‘essential’, so that is not possible within the current guidance. I love Italy and look forward to travelling there again when it is safe to do so!” she said.
Bradshaw is also Assembly private secretary to her party leader and Stormont justice minister Naomi Long.
- With reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
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