Burnham leaves Haigh in charge two weeks into the job

The Prime Minister is on holiday, leaving Deputy Prime Minister Louise Haigh to run the government. Andy Burnham has been in Downing Street for two weeks.

No 10 says the government will function as normal during his absence. GB News describes the trip as "bunking off for a jolly abroad". The Daily Express warns that his Labour Party is "due a shock" and calls the timing "cocky". The holiday comes as Burnham faces pressure on prison policy and early releases.

Every modern Prime Minister has taken holidays - Tony Blair went to Tuscany, David Cameron to Cornwall, Boris Johnson to the Caribbean. The machinery continues. But the optics matter when the job is new and the honeymoon brief. A fortnight is not long enough to have settled anything, and ministers know it.

The test is what arrives while he is away. If a crisis lands on Haigh's desk, the decision is still hers - the delegation is real, not cosmetic. If nothing happens, the holiday will be forgotten by the time Parliament returns. Timing is everything in politics, and two weeks in office is early to be testing whether the country notices you have left.