Herne Bay MP Roger Gale is anxiously awaiting news of his son and daughter-in-law who are stranded in Thailand in the wake of anti-government protests.

Tom Gale, 27, and wife Basma, from Preston, near Canterbury, had enjoyed the holiday of a lifetime in the resort of Phuket and were due to fly home a week ago.

But they now find themselves among tens of thousands of holidaymakers forced to abandon homecoming plans after protesters took hold of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport.

The MP, who with wife Suzy also lives in Preston, said: “They were on their way home but had to spend two nights at a hotel in Bangkok.

“That appeared to be fleecing people so I told them to get back to their hotel in Phuket.

“There’s a heck of a lot of people in the same boat out there. As early as Friday morning I spoke with foreign office minister Bill Rammell.

“I appealed to him to talk to the Thai Government and get the military airports open to bail people out.

“There are thousands of British stranded out there, many with no flights, no accommodation, no food, no nothing.”

Mr Gale said he was in the position of being able to underwrite his son’s credit cards so he and his wife could book an outgoing ticket from another airport. But he added that many stranded others were not so fortunate.

Tom and his wife are rescheduled to fly to Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday and from there via Mumbai to London in a journey that will take more than 24 hours.