Keir Starmer has achieved a number of things this summer, not least winning an election and rubbing shoulders with other world leaders at the Nato summit. What he has not managed, however, is to go on a family holiday.
In calling off the planned jaunt to Europe as his government responded to days of rioting, the prime minister became the latest in a decades-long list of politicians to wearily decide that duties come before beach time with the kids.
