Boris Johnson plans ‘staycation’ in Scotland after time at Chequers

The prime minister has spoken about allowing a ‘brief staycation to creep into the agenda, if that’s possible’ when quizzed about his plans for a getaway.

But The Sunday Times has now reported that Johnson, fiancee Carrie Symonds and their son Wilfred will travel north of the border next weekend.

Have your say
Send your letters for publication to The New European by emailing letters@theneweuropean.co.uk by Tuesday at 9am and pick up an edition each Thursday for more comment and analysis. Find your nearest stockist here, read the newspaper on our app, or subscribe to a print or digital edition for just £13. You can also join our readers' Facebook group to keep the discussion and debate going with thousands of fellow pro-Europeans.

A No 10 source declined to comment but did not deny the report, and there suggestions any trip would be closer to a week in duration than the fortnight reported.

Their last known holiday was a luxury winter break to the private Caribbean island of Mustique, but it was reported that Johnson was ‘working’ from Chequers last week after urging people to return to their offices.

The trip north of the border would come at a time cabinet ministers are ramping up visits to Scotland amid concerns the Covid-19 crisis has strengthened the demand for independence in the nation.

Other MPs’ trips abroad have come unstuck due to the 14-day quarantine restriction being imposed on visitors returning from overseas destinations that are deemed as high-risk.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps was in Spain when the UK’s most popular holiday destination was struck off the safe list of travel destinations, while minister for London Paul Scully was in Lanzarote.

Since then, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Bahamas have been added to the quarantine list and there are concerns France could be next as the nation struggles to control increasing cases.

Speaking last month, Johnson said: ‘I would encourage people still to think of wonderful staycations here in the UK.

‘There are all sorts of fantastic destinations, the best in the world, I would say.

‘All my happiest holiday memories are of holiday vacations here in the UK, bucket-and-spade jobs or whatever, and I thoroughly, thoroughly recommend it, and I’m sure that people will have a great time over the summer.’

His sister appeared to cast doubt on the claims, writing: ‘I racked my brains to think which holidays he meant. The time it rained in Ireland or on Mull? Or one of the childhood summers in West Somerset, one of the wettest places in the kingdom?’