Labour plans to delay parliament summer recess if it wins election

Labour is planning to push back the summer recess for MPs until the end of July if it wins the election, Sky News understands.

If Sir Keir enters Downing Street as prime minister, some of the first things on his agenda will be to appoint his new Cabinet and have new MPs sworn into parliament.

It is understood that the King’s speech – where the monarch reads out the government’s legislative agenda – will take place two weeks later on 17 July.

Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby said on her Electoral Dysfunction podcast that parliament would normally wrap up after the King’s Speech – but that a Labour government would keep the Commons active until the end of July before calling recess, with MPs returning in September.

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Before the election was called, the summer recess was due to begin on 23 July – but considering this is only six days after the King’s Speech Sir Keir will likely need more sitting days to have his agenda approved by newly elected MPs.

As the general election campaign enters its final days, the Tories have found a new attack line to deploy against Sir Keir – that his desire to stop working after 6pm on Fridays to spend time with his children would make him a “part-time prime minister”.

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Sir Keir, who has two teenage children, said he would continue to have “protected time for the kids” at the end of the week if he were to take over as prime minister on 5 July.

The Conservatives branded the Labour leader a “part-time prime minister” – but Sir Keir responded by labelling the attacks “laughably pathetic”.

Sir Keir explained that he carved out Friday nights because his wife’s family is Jewish and they observe family prayers.

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‘The Conservatives used to be the party of family’

Ayesha Hazarika, a former Labour adviser, told the podcast she was “absolutely flabbergasted by this whole Conservative campaign”.

“It’s so interesting when you look at how desperate the Conservative Party are right now – the Conservative Party used to be the party of the family,” she said.

“It was really proud of being the party of the family and now it’s having a go at somebody because he wants to observe, Friday night with his Jewish wife and kids.

“With 48 hours to go, who thought that an attack on families with a little dollop of antisemitism, you know, thrown in, would be the final kind of attack line? It’s utterly, utterly stupid and it’s really self-defeating as well.”

She said she had worked with politicians who have been on duty “24/7 and didn’t have a break, and I think they were poorer for it actually”.

Ms Hazarika highlighted the work ethic of Gordon Brown, who as well as being prime minister was a Presbyterian.

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“Gordon Brown famously really struggled because he had this real Presbyterian work ethic,” she said.

“I remember one point we were coming up to the summer and he sort of had to take a break. He kind of didn’t want to take a break because he’d fought so long, waited such a long time to become prime minister.

“His advisers were like, ‘you’ve got to take a summer break, because it kind of looks a bit weird if you don’t take a summer break’.

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“And of course, his summer break, I think… he still wore his shirt and tie and his suit the whole time during a summer break. And he was very reluctant to give up any control because Harriet Harman was acting leader while he was away and he was like really stressed out about not being in control. And I think that that doesn’t help you in the end.”

According to Tory peer Baroness Davidson, former Tory prime minister Lord Cameron was also strict about putting time aside for family.

She said Sunday afternoons were “his time for his family”.

“You could not get him up to Scotland at the weekend unless you could get back down on the Saturday, because Sunday was his time with the family,” she said.

“I always respected that.”

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