Michael Gove: I'm going on holiday to 'safe' Greece despite wildfires

Housing Secretary rejects concerns that Foreign Office advice to tourists is too relaxed

The UK government has stopped short of telling people not to travel to wildfire-hit parts of Greece such as Rhodes. AFP

A British minister said on Tuesday he planned to take a holiday on a Greek island despite raging wildfires, which he insisted did not make the country unsafe.

Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis declared the country was “at war” with the fires being fuelled by 40°C weather and tinder-dry forests.

But Britain's Housing Secretary Michael Gove rejected claims that the UK Foreign Office was taking too relaxed an approach by not issuing advice to avoid Greece.

Insurers typically take their lead from Foreign Office advice in deciding whether to cover tourists. The current guidance is that people should follow local advice.

Mr Gove, speaking for the government on a morning broadcast round, said the “advice is clear” that “if you follow the Foreign Office advice it is safe”.

“In fact, I’m due to go on holiday, God willing, to Greece in just over a week’s time, not to Rhodes but to another island and I’m looking forward to going,” said Mr Gove.

“Greece is a wonderful country, a wonderful place to holiday and we do need to support the Greek government in dealing with the situation in Rhodes.”

Mr Gove said the island he was heading to was Evia, near Athens, where evacuations have been ordered because of wildfires.

Rhodes has taken the brunt of the infernos as fires roared down mountain slopes, burning homes and cars and leaving livestock dead on the roadside.

No serious injuries have been reported to humans but tourists have been given first aid for the effects of heat and dehydration.

Tui, one of the world's largest tour operators, has said it was cancelling trips to Rhodes until Friday and offering free cancellations or rebookings to other destinations. It said it had 39,000 customers on the island.

Wildfires in Greece – in pictures

Addressing parliament, Mr Mitsotakis highlighted the threat from climate change, which he said would "make its presence ever more felt with greater natural disasters throughout the Mediterranean region”.

“We are at war – completely focused on the fires,” he said. “Over the coming days and weeks, we must remain on constant alert.”

In Greece, an average of 50 new wildfires have broken out daily for the past 12 days, according to government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis. On Sunday, 64 blazes were recorded.

Firefighters also tackled blazes on Monday in southern Italy, as a brush fire burnt near Palermo along with several other fires on the island of Sicily.