Downing Street said Prime Minister Keir Starmer is due to go away for a few days with his family over New Year – after his last planned trip was cancelled in the summer
The Prime Minister is due to take his first break abroad since winning the election after urgently cancelling his holiday during the summer riots.
Downing Street said Keir Starmer is due to go away for a few days with his family over New Year. No10 would not say where the PM is going, with his travel usually kept quiet due to security reasons. Mr Starmer will remain in charge of the country during his trip.
In August Mr Starmer cancelled his family holiday following the wave of disorder across the UK. The PM had been expected to head to Europe with his family for a few days – but opted to stay at home with police forces on “high alert”.
The decision stood in stark contrast with Boris Johnson’s initial refusal to come home during the 2011 London riots. The then-London mayor, who was reportedly on holiday in North America, was heckled when he finally returned and visited areas hit by violence. When asked by one angry local why he had not returned home earlier, he responded: “I came as fast as I could.”
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In the summer Mr Johnson himself encouraged Mr Starmer to go on holiday. The fomrer Prime Minister wrote that it was time for Mr Starmer to “recharge the batteries” in a bitterly-worded attack encouraging him to “show some guts”. At the time, a Government source said Mr Starmer would not be taking a break – adding it shows his “dedication to public service”.
Mr Johnson was known to go on lavish holidays. After the Tories’ 2019 election landslide, he spent New Year at a villa on the Caribbean island of Mustique with his now-wife Carrie Symonds. But a row quickly erupted of how exactly the luxury trip to the private paradise isle was funded.
The former PM declared on his Register of Interests that Carphone Warehouse boss David Ross paid for the £15,000 trip. But he faced a probe over the costs. The Committee on Standards concluded he had not breached the rules but said it was “regrettable” he had not properly explained how it was funded from the outset.