Where do our politicians go on holiday?

Summer breaks are fraught affairs for Westminster's finest. From the Starmers' staycation to the Sunaks' Santa Monica idyll, Robbie Griffiths has the lowdown

BY MOST people's standards, Sir Keir Starmer deserves a holiday. Only last month the Prime Minister won a historic election victory for Labour. On the campaign trail, Sir Keir criss-crossed the UK trying to appeal to voters, and surely exhausted himself in the process. But since his triumph on July 4, Sir Keir hasn't had his beach break. First he went to a series of international conferences, then he dealt with unrest at home after the horrific murder of three children in Southport and a subsequent wave of racist rioting.

It's been a stressful summer for Westminster's finest in general.

Ever since Rishi Sunak called a snap election in May, all dreams of a break were put on hold as parties went on an election footing.

Now they are quietly trying to get some sun. But political summer holidays are fraught affairs. Prime ministers have to be careful to pitch their trips right: not so lavish as to seem out of touch, but not too consciously down-to-earth that the destination seems affected. And politicians now holiday under the shadow of Dominic Raab, the former foreign secretary who was sunbathing in Crete as the Taliban marched on Kabul back in summer 2021. An ill-advised holiday can be career-ruining.

There are many ways to holiday. In his Imperial early phase in Downing Street, Sir Tony Blair often had breaks in Tuscany, taking his young family to a place that felt classy but not out of reach. Later, his destinations became more glamorous. Taking favours from rich friends, he jetted off to Sir Cliff Richard's mansion in Barbados and on another occasion put his feet up in the Sardinian villa of late Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi.

Other prime ministers, trying to seem more down to earth, took breaks in the UK. In 2007, Gordon Brown went to Dorset, visiting a sailing academy near Weymouth.