The Prime Minister of the UK, David Cameron, has attracted criticism over his choice of summer holiday destination this year.
During a speech to foreign business leaders at the British Business Embassy conference last Thursday, the PM was quoted as saying: ‘If you want a holiday, then why not have your holiday here?’ However, it has emerged that Mr Cameron’s own holiday plans for this year involve taking his wife, Samantha, and their three children to a destination in continental Europe.
The holiday abroad has been confirmed by the Prime Minister’s office in Downing Street, although no specific details were given regarding the location, due to security concerns.
Although the leaders of all three of the UK’s main political parties will be staying in Britain for the duration of the 2012 Olympic Games, they have all diarised holidays outside the UK in the weeks following. Liberal Democrat leader and deputy PM, Nick Clegg will be taking his family on their regular summer excursion to his French villa, and on to his wife’s hometown of Olmedo in Spain, while the leader of the opposition Labour party, Ed Miliband, will holiday with his family in Greece.
Newspapers in the UK have been quick to pick up on the Prime Minister’s apparent confusion, with the Daily Mail today alluding to his comments when holidaying in Cornwall in 2010 when he said that Britons should be proud of their country and what it has to offer.
‘I love going on holiday in Britain. I’ve holidayed in Snowdonia, South Devon and North Cornwall, the Lake District, Norfolk, the Inner Hebrides, the Highlands of Scotland, the canals of Staffordshire to name just a few,’ he said at the time.
