A conservative MP wants to make travel cover compulsory following the recent major injury case of a British citizen abroad.

Thirty year-old Mathew Taylor of Derbyshire suffered serious head injuries during a holiday on the Indonesian island of Bali when he crashed on a motorcycle over the summer. Now the man has been in hospital in Singapore since July where he and his family have racked up a bill of £172,000.

As a result, conservative MP Andrew Bridgen from North West Leicestershire wants to see a change in the rules so that people travelling outside of the UK must have mandatory insurance. Bridgen said a system could be put in place at airports to ensure that all of those travelling abroad have cover.

Even though Taylor was teaching in Bali and not simply taking holiday, Mr Bridgen said that the case was a powerful reminder that Britons need to organise ample cover for travels abroad.

But Taylor’s father told reporters that his son hadn’t taken out travel insurance because it would’ve come at a cost of more than 50 per cent of his monthly salary. Commenting on the family’s £2,000 a day medical bill, he said they were quickly running out of money and didn’t know what would happen when it’s gone. However he said he suspected Singapore wasn’t the kind of place that would just leave someone to die.