British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday revealed that he will be spending his summer holiday in the US, where he had met wife Akshata Murty while studying at Stanford University.
The 43-year-old British Indian leader revealed that his daughters, Krishna and Anoushka, are excited because Disneyland in California is on the agenda for the week-long family break after a gap of four years.
Downing Street had earlier revealed that deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden will be in charge while the UK PM is away on his first “proper holiday” since July 2019.
“The country will be left in the capable hands of the deputy prime minister, so we are having our first proper family summer holiday in a few years for sure,” Mr Sunak told ‘LBC’ during a phone-in radio show.
“I am very much looking forward to spending time with my kids…we’re going to California, which is where I met my wife so it’s very special to us. The kids are very excited because I am taking them to Disneyland,” said Mr Sunak, adding that he is looking forward to spending time in the ‘Star Wars’ segment of the amusement park in Burbank, California.
Asked by the interviewer how he manages to relax given his packed schedule, Sunak said it was by spending time with his two daughters – aged 11 and nine.
“So, this (holiday) would be really special for us because we rarely get family time. We had a night out the other evening to go and see ‘Barbie’, which was fun,” he said, describing it as “pink escapism” when asked what he made of the recent Hollywood release.
Earlier in the radio show, Mr Sunak revealed that his family has healthy debates over the issue of climate action and that he has a “readymade focus group at home” as both his environmentalist daughters often have differing views on issues.
“Like most people, they’re not eco zealots, they’re open to sensible, practical arguments,” he said, with reference to a recent government announcement to invest in new domestic oil and gas licences.
“We are going to get to net zero but even when we’re there we will still need fossil fuels,” he said.
During the show, Mr Sunak was grilled by several callers over the cost-of-living crisis, rising mortgage rates and long National Health Service (NHS) waiting lists for treatments.
He reiterated his five pledges for the Conservative Party led government – to halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce national debt, cut NHS waiting lists, and stop the boats of illegal migrants – and admitted that actions on all five may not be as fast as anyone would like but “we are headed in the right direction”.