Sunak and Starmer both rule out St George holiday

Workers look unlikely to get an extra day off, after both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer declined to commit to a bank holiday to mark St George's Day.

In 2017, then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he wanted four new UK-wide bank holidays to mark each UK nation's patron saint day.

Asked about the policy, Sir Keir suggested a new bank holiday was not possible because of the economy.

Mr Sunak also declined to commit to a new holiday when asked by reporters.

He said he was in "celebration mode" over St George's Day, adding: "It is a proud day, it's an incredibly proud day.

"When you're in Ukraine and you hear Ukrainians talk about our country and what it means to them, that's the same pride everyone should have.

"I have the great pleasure in this job of travelling round the world and hearing how other people talk about what it means to be English, what we stand for, and I think we need to have that same pride too."

Sir Keir similarly said St George's Day was "a day to celebrate and that is what we're all doing on St George's Day.

"I think that is both sentimental - in the sense of our history, our values our traditions - but, for me, bound up with that sense of service to our country.

"A bank holiday would be very nice but I think that, with the economy where it is at the moment, we have to celebrate in-and-around the work that we're doing, because we need to absolutely take our country forward.

"What I want to do, if we're privileged enough to come into government, is to have a government of service to the country and have a decade of national renewal - and that would fulfil St George's Day's promise."

Campaigners to make St George's Day on 23rd April a bank holiday have previously argued that the UK has fewer bank holidays per year than other major industrialised nations. The average across European Union countries is 11.

Up until 1834, there were 33 public holidays in the UK but these day England and Wales typically get eight.

Scotland has an additional bank holiday to celebrate St Andrew's Day on 2 December. Northern Ireland has two extra bank holidays to mark St Patrick's Day on 17 March and the Battle of the Boyne in July.

In 2022, then-Welsh Secretary Sir Robert Buckland said he was in favour of making St David's Day a holiday in Wales - but that another bank holiday should be scrapped to make room for a 1 March celebration.

In the same year, workers got an extra bank holiday to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee.

At the time, business leaders urged the prime minister to make the bank holiday permanent arguing it would boost the economy.

Government modelling put the cost of an extra bank holiday at £1.36bn, while accountancy firm PwC estimated the figure would be closer to £831m.