Sir Keir Starmer is not going on holiday this week, Downing Street has insisted amid reports he was set to jet off as rioting sweeps the country.
The Prime Minister will be working from No 10 all week as his Government faces its biggest crisis since he won his election landslide last month.
It comes as Sir Keir faces demands from senior MPs to recall Parliament so that they can debate the Government’s handling of the disorder.
Reports emerged that Sir Keir was planning to go on holiday on Monday, which sparked fierce criticism, including from a frontrunner for the Tory leadership.
Towns and cities across the country have been hit by far-Right riots fuelled by misinformation about the identity of the suspect for the Southport stabbings.
More than 90 people were arrested on Saturday over violent unrest in Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, Blackpool and Belfast.
It was claimed on Monday morning that, despite the escalating situation, Sir Keir was still planning to jet off on a family holiday this week.
But it is understood that the Prime Minister will be working in Downing Street and that there were never any plans for him to go on leave on Monday.
It is not clear whether Sir Keir has a break booked for later in August.
Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister who is a frontrunner to win the upcoming Tory leadership contest, was among those to react to the reports.
He told The Camilla Tominey Show on GB News: “It would be completely wrong for the Prime Minister to holiday while parts of Britain are burning.
“This is a very serious situation and we need the Prime Minister to be leading the country.
“The police need our full support and they need to know that he is there supporting them, making sure that this situation is being handled from the very top.
“This is a situation that is so serious that it needs the Prime Minister’s personal attention.”
A source close to Mr Jenrick described such a break as “Nero-esque” – a reference to the Emperor who reputedly fiddled while Rome burned.
Sir Keir’s reported plans to take a break were defended by one of his own backbenchers, however, who said the Prime Minister “has to have family time”.
Chris Webb, the Labour MP for Blackpool South, said that Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, would be able to stand in for Sir Keir.
He told LBC: “Every Prime Minister has to have that family time and that break but from what I know of Keir he will be continuing to work and monitor the situation wherever he is on holiday.”
The reports came after Dame Priti Patel warned the Government risks being swept away with events rather than maintaining control of them.
The former home secretary said that Sir Keir should recall Parliament so that MPs from across the political divide can condemn the rioting.
She said: “As home secretary I brought forward much stronger protections against disproportionate protest and disorder, in the teeth of fierce opposition.
“But it was the right thing to do and those powers must be used to their maximal extent now.
“Now is a moment for national reflection and solidarity, to pull back from the wave of violence we have seen, to call it out for what it is, without fear or favour, and for Parliament to speak with one voice in condemnation.
“We either believe in the rule of law, or we do not. That is why Parliament must be recalled immediately.”
Lord Walney, the Government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption, said that Sir Keir may need to recall Parliament.
He told The Camilla Tominey Show on GB News: “If this continues and we are into the space where potentially an emergency suite of powers or changes may be considered, then of course I think Parliament will want to be recalled in those circ*mstances.”
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a former Tory leader, also said Parliament should be recalled.
He told The Telegraph: “It does seem to me that if these riots are going to go on, which it looks like they are, he needs to bring people back to explain what he’s doing.
“It looks like he hasn’t done anything so far, and the questions will be what are you doing? There need to be serious questions about the advice they have received.
“Frankly it wouldn’t be a bad idea at all. There seems to be foreign government hands in this, and that therefore requires that we find about this and Parliament is recalled.”
