Andy Burnham is already being criticised for going on holiday after scarcely a fortnight in the job. Rumour has it that he’s going abroad which means that, as well as the charge of laziness, he will probably get criticised wherever he ends up (unpatriotic, pretentious, common or boring depending on the destination) because nobody thinks a politician deserves a holiday, which is probably why they spite the rest of us by taking such extra-long vacations, or “parliamentary recesses” as they like to style them.
That was certainly Margaret Thatcher’s attitude. She hated being away from No 10, and wasn’t that keen on sleep when she was there. When dragged away by Denis, it was usually to cooler climes such as Austria and Switzerland (like Theresa and Philip May), or else Cornwall (like the Camerons). She didn’t much like going to stay with the Queen at Balmoral. The usually industrious Rishi Sunak, who also skimped on his family vacations, looked very much at home in sunny California, but it probably didn’t endear him to voters suffering a cost of living crisis.
Yes, because they’re not supposed to enjoy the finer things in life; the charge of “hypocrite” is easily hurled at any fancy habits. But they also have to uphold the dignity of their position.
Thus when Tony Blair and the New Labour aristocracy used to gather around in Tuscany each summer, it was easily derided as out-of-touch and elitist. But when Margaret and Leo Beckett went caravanning in the Peak District, they were also mocked, but for being hopelessly common.
A fairly conventional middle-class British getaway is the safest option; it was north Wales for Clement Attlee, the Scilly Isles for Harold Wilson, Southwold for the Brown clan, and the Lakes or New Forest for the Starmers. Safe, solid choices.
A lot, if someone else is paying for it and you don’t properly declare it. Boris Johnson is a case in point; to some, he remains a patriotic hero who deserved his treats, to others an inveterate freeloader. Even his most fervent admirers found his reluctance to clarify who paid for a £15,000 break in Mustique a little embarrassing. He later tried to make amends by living for a few days in a midge-infested teepee in a field on the Scottish coast, but was driven out when he failed to get permission from the farmer. Peter Mandelson, who also enjoyed his luxuries, lived to regret his free “yum, yum” breaks on Epstein Island in the Caribbean; he denies any wrongdoing.
An excellent option, provided of course that they are of good character and may be trusted (see Mandelson). The Majors felt so comfortable in the Spanish home of then Europe minister Tristan Garel-Jones that they lodged there every year for more than a quarter of a century. Candeleda, a little town in central Spain, was the ideal place to get away from the “bastards” in his own party who doomed his premiership. By contrast, the locals so appreciated the presence of such a distinguished long-term visitor that they named a street after him in 2013 – Avenida de John Major.
He could surprise us all and book a golfing weekend at Mar-a-Lago in the hope of bumping into Donald Trump, who’d be sure to give him a warm welcome.
Nearer home, the new PM could enjoy a week or two in Blackpool or some other “left behind” English resort as an emblem of his determination to see “good growth in every postcode”. It doesn’t have to be the North, either. He could choose Clacton, which is quite busy at the moment and, breaking off from the fruities, he could also indulge in a little campaigning against Nigel Farage. Always fun. Or else Skegness, where the bracing presence of the local Reform representative Richard Tice awaits him. The amiable multimillionaire property developer would surely stand him a pint and a packet of pork scratchings. The Netherlands, from where Ms Burnham – Marie-France van Heel – hails, would also be acceptable to the holiday police of the British press, provided he stuck to touring the tulip fields and didn’t go near Amsterdam’s more libertine districts.
Travelling further away would inevitably mean a flight, all too easily leading to accusations about his carbon footprint and climate hypocrisy (Ed Miliband daren’t fly further than Ibiza or Greece). Anyway, the guy’s not ever going to be given a break by the media, and he knows it.
