Downing Street has condemned Pontins after it was exposed for operating a blacklist of “undesirable guests” with Irish surnames, in an attempt to stop traveller families from booking.
It emerged that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) was approached by a whistleblower who claimed that the company was using the discriminatory policy.
Those “unwelcome”, according to an internal document, included 40 mainly Irish surnames such as Boyle, Carney, Doherty, Gallagher, Murphy and O’Reilly. Booking operators were told “we do not want these guests”.
The document had appeared on the company’s intranet by 2018 under the heading “undesirable guests”, featuring a picture apparently depicting Gandalf, a wizard from The Lord of the Rings books, saying: “You shall not pass!” It added: “Please watch out for