HARDWORKING Brits have 8 Bank Holidays a year to spend with friends and family.
Here we dive into whether we’ll get another one to mark the result of the General Election.
It seems unlikely Sir Keir Starmer will give the UK an extra Bank Holiday if Labour wins the election.
He has dropped a pledge the party had to introduce a new one for St George’s Day in England and St David’s Day in Wales.
On the contrary, Rishi Sunak has said he’d like us to get an extra day off.
Sir Keir has previously called for them if our national teams won any major tournaments such as the Euros or the World Cup, but he’s been quiet about that idea this time round.
The Government says an extra day off for workers can cost the economy over a billion pounds – although business bosses say they can give companies a huge boost.
Don’t worry though – it’s not long to wait until the next Bank Holiday.
Fingers crossed we’ll be able to crack out the barbecues if the weather holds up on August 26th.
If you’re in Northern Ireland, there’s one even sooner on July 12th.
Make the most of it though, there aren’t any more until Christmas – unless you’re in Scotland.
St Andrew’s Day is a public holiday north of the border on December 2nd.
Bank Holidays form part of almost all workers’ paid holiday entitlement.
Many take them as a day off on the date they take place, however, some companies allow their employees to work on the Bank Holiday and add the day off to the rest of their holiday days.
By law, UK workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of holiday, which includes Bank Holidays.
For a full time worker, this adds up to a total of 28 days.
Sir Keir Starmer had been in favour of giving Brits more Bank Holidays in the past – but he seems to have gone cold on the idea lately.
He called for England to get an extra day off if the Three Lions brought it home in the Euros in 2020, and repeated it for the Lionesses at the 2023 World Cup.
His predecessor Jeremy Corbyn said in the past how he’d give each of the four UK nations a Bank Holiday for their patron saint day.
But Sir Keir has recently said any new holidays aren’t possible because it’d impact the economy.
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.”
Sir Keir Starmer
England and Wales have eight Bank Holidays over the course of the year.
Meanwhile Scotland has nine each year, and lucky Northern Ireland has ten – including St Patrick’s Day and Battle of the Boyne.
