Rishi Sunak taking first family holiday in four years, No 10 says

Rishi Sunak, pictured here with his family at an event in Downing Street earlier this year, had his last holiday cut short

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will take his first proper family holiday for four years this week, Downing Street has said.

The PM's spokeswoman would not reveal the destination for security reasons, but said he would be spending just over a week abroad from Thursday.

Mr Sunak will receive regular updates from London, with his deputy Oliver Dowden "at the helm" while he is away.

He would be flying, rather than taking the train, Downing Street confirmed.

The prime minister's spokeswoman pointed out his previous attempt at a foreign break, to a Spanish island in September, lasted just 15 hours before he returned to Westminster following news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

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Mr Sunak was appointed chancellor in February 2020, shortly before the announcement of the first Covid lockdown, when foreign travel was restricted.

During his two years in the job, he was kept busy overseeing the delivery of the furlough scheme and dealing with the economic impact of the pandemic.

When he resigned from Boris Johnson's cabinet in July, rather than taking a holiday, just a few days later he entered the race to be the next Conservative leader and spent the summer battling Liz Truss in party hustings across the country.

No 10 said he would be taking time off with his family for the first time since 2019, when he became chief secretary to the Treasury, the role he held before being made chancellor.

Asked whether the prime minister believed in having a work-life balance, his spokeswoman insisted that he believed this was "very important, particularly spending time with family".

"Not that he's necessarily a good example of practicing what you preach," she added.

Mr Sunak has two daughters with his wife Akshata Murty.

A Labour spokesperson said party leader Sir Keir Starmer, who also has two children, was currently on holiday in the UK with his family.

The prime minister has faced criticism over the number of domestic flights he has taken to travel for government visits across the UK.

Earlier, he defended flying to Scotland to announce support for a carbon capture project as "an efficient use of time for the person running the country".

"If your approach to climate change is to say that no one should go on holiday, no one should go on a plane, I think you are completely and utterly wrong," he told BBC's Good Morning Scotland.

Meanwhile in France, ministers have been told by the prime minister's office not to travel too far for their summer holiday and to choose destinations "compatible with their responsibilities", according to Le Figaro newspaper.