Kirstie Allsopp rages at Labour MP after 'out of order' dig at teen son in travelling row
Kirstie Allsopp responded to Labour MP Andy Croy's sarcastic remarks about her decision to allow her teenage son to travel unaccompanied around Europe.
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Kirstie Allsopp has endured a tense few days on social media after sharing that her 15-year-old son went interrailing around Europe without any adult supervision.
Despite criticism, the TV star has continued to defend her decision on X. Still, not everyone has accepted her reasoning, including Labour MP Andy Croy, who called the Location, Location, Location presenter "stupid beyond belief".
Kirstie tweeted: I’ve been having constant chats with mates and online about how much we all travelled unaccompanied: to school, to grandparents, to pen pals, to babysitting gigs. Now it’s all shock, what the heck has happened?
"Is this all 24 hour news? Because the stats are very clear, travel is safer than ever."
In response, Andy commented: "Imagine thinking these are like interrailing. Amazing."
Kirstie was left infuriated by the sarcastic response and quickly typed back: "I’ll take a lot of s**t on this platform but being attacked by a @WokinghamLabour councillor is a step too far (or an SNP or Tory councillor) my son is bright, brave & capable, he wanted to travel, he saved up, he did it safely & sensibly and Andy Croy is well out of order. " (sic).
Andy went on to share his experience with interrailing as a young person, which he described as "dangerous" in a separate post.
He typed: "I Interrailed by myself as a 19-year-old, in the mid 1980s. Most people I met thought Interrailing carried risks for young people, and safety and security were major topics of conversation.
'Perhaps trains, stations and the areas around stations are safer now. I dunno. But it seems remarkably stupid, on a lot of levels, to publicise that you allowed a 15-year-old to do this.
"As if a 16-year-old is any security. It's stupid beyond belief. And the 'late birthday' schilling is absurd. FFS." (sic)
This further enraged Kirstie, who accused the MP of "attacking her" and explained that it was "legal" for her son to travel unaccompanied.
She wrote: "This man is a public official attacking someone for enabling a young person to safely & legally explore their own continent.
"If we lived in Australia the distant my son travelled would barely have made it out of a region, never mind the whole way across the country."
The Location, Location, Location presenter said her son, Oscar, went travelling across Europe with a 16-year-old friend this summer. But after he returned, she was contacted by a social worker who informed her that a file had been opened because child protection concerns had been raised.
Kirstie issued a lengthy defence on her Instagram and said it never occurred to her that social services would get involved.
She said: "I knew that we were becoming a more risk-averse culture in the UK and the US. My time in Switzerland has taught me a lot. There, as in Japan, children walk to school alone and are encouraged to learn early to be self-sufficient, and trusted to make sensible choices."
While she knew some people may raise an eyebrow at her decision to let her young teen travel Europe without an adult, she said she hoped "the silver lining to this cloud is that everyone stops and thinks about the freedoms we had as children, and ask what harm could be done, not by the freedoms, but by the restrictions and fears we are imposing on our kids."
She had previously told The Mail on Sunday the call from the council left her feeling "sick" and then "very, very cross".
