Prime ministers at play: the rules of summer holidays for our leaders

As Rishi Sunak flees to sunny Santa Monica to escape the cold winds of the cost of living crisis, Sean O’Grady looks at how PMs from Harold Wilson to David Cameron ‘chillaxed’ – and reveals the tricky diplomacy of getting away on your hols while still appearing to be running the country

(PA/iStock)

So, you’re prime minister, in charge of Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent. You’re in control of a permanent seat on the Security Council of the United Nations. The sixth largest economy in the world and the best military are at your disposal. You can declare war, make peace, end careers, inspire your people, craft your own history. Now, though, comes the most awesome, most intricate, most stressful challenge of all: where to go for your hols?

Aside from the grace and favour grandeur of Chequers, which is a retreat rather than an escape, a prime minister is usually in a no-win situation – and acutely so, even by the usual standards of political leadership. It requires the finest of judgments, balancing personal desires, family demands, the needs of the country and, most important of all, what the media and the voters expect of you. Such contradictory forces can easily lead you into acute embarrassment. And sometimes your time away from No 10 can lead to calamitous delusions. So perhaps in this Lonely Planet guide for premier breaks, we should begin with some “don’ts”.

One thing you should obviously try to avoid is being perceived to be rubbing the electorate’s nose in its sufferings while you jet off and enjoy the sunshine. To take one great historic example, when James Callaghan returned from an international summit on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe in early 1979 to a freezing nation paralysed by strikes in the “winter of discontent”, he attempted to strike a statesmanlike pose when confronted by reporters at Heathrow.