AN eight-year-old boy has become a driving force in a campaign to help save the nation’s coach industry.

Theo Taylor, from Parkend, who goes to Monmouth Prep School, has given interviews on television, made video appeals and written daily to Boris Johnson demanding answers about why his family’s coach business and the rest of the industry has had no Government help.

He has even written to the Queen, “because she is Boris’ boss and will tell him what to do!”

The youngster has been to London and Edinburgh, and was in Cardiff and Bristol on board a family coach on Monday (August 17) as part of the ‘Honk for Hope UK’ campaign which ended in a rally at Chepstow Racecourse.

The protest has seen coach operators take their vehicles into city centres and honk their horns to raise the plight of their industry, which has received no funding since lockdown and can only operate with half-filled coaches since lockdown was eased.

And Theo said before heading out on his latest Honk for Hope trip: “London was great, although the MPs in Parliament complained about the noise from the honking… well they need to listen to what we’re saying!

“I’m going to keep writing to Boris until I get a reply and he tells us what he’s going to do.

“Doing the videos and the TV interviews has been awesome, but it’s my family and I want to help them.”

Theo’s mum and dad, Helen and Ceri Taylor, own Applegates Coaches across the Severn Bridge in Berkeley, and say they have lost £1.2m in revenue since lockdown.

Helen said: “We didn’t go to the first two ‘Honk for Hope’ rallies as we were hoping the trade body would make some progress in talks with the Government.

“But when nothing was going forward, we decided to join up and take a coach to the rally in London – me, my husband, Theo and his 16-year-old sister Zoe.

“We drove outside Parliament and all honked our horns, and then the police came down and told us to stop because the MPs inside were complaining about the noise!

“Before we went we put a couple of videos on social media to get support for the Honk and Theo decided he wanted to do them. And when we started writing to MPs and things, completely off his own bat he said he wanted to write to Boris.

“He said I’m going to tell him I’m eight and I need answers. Then the next day he said I’m going to write to the Queen because she’s Boris’ boss and it just snowballed and he’s written every day since.

“Theo was interviewed on BBC Breakfast TV talking about the difference between buses and coaches, and asking why buses have been helped and we’ve had nothing.

“And Channel 5 phoned while we were on the coach in Edinburgh and said could they come on board and they just wanted to interview Theo.

“He was perfectly OK with that and it’s mind blowing that he can just sit there and talk so knowledgeably about the coach industry and the problems it faces.”

Helen added: “Coaches, which provide travel in comfort, are so important because without them the tourist industry will die.

“But with only half capacity allowed, without funding it’s just not viable or profitable to run coaches. We’re still trying to operate, because people need us, we’re an essential service, but it’s very difficult.”

She said the government has done nothing to help through lockdown.