BORIS Johnson and Keir Starmer are both off enjoying holidays while the UK is forecast to go into recession amid rising interest rates and inflation.

Despite his premiership ending in less than five weeks when he will be replaced by either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak, Johnson has decided to take some time off until the end of the week.

Labour leader Starmer is also away on a break and is not due to be back until August 15. 

Later, it was revealed that Nadhim Zahawi is also on holiday.

The Chancellor was said to be still working and had a call with Governor Andrew Bailey after interest rates were hiked from 1.25% to 1.75%, the biggest increase for 27 years.

And in their absence, the Bank of England has predicted the UK will fall into recession in the last three months of 2022 with the economy set to continue shrinking throughout next year.

If that wasn’t enough, the BoE has warned inflation could hit 13.3% later this year while interest rates are set to climb from 1.25% to 1.75% - the biggest single increase since 1995.

And Ofgem has said the energy price cap will now be updated quarterly instead of twice a year. 

The SNP and Alba have both slammed Johnson for being away during a looming economic crisis.

Owen Thompson, the SNP chief whip, insisted it was a “disgrace” and said Scotland would remember his “legacy of laziness”.

"The recent interest rate hike and impending recession are yet more examples of the Government falling asleep at the wheel while household budgets pick up the pieces,” Thompson said.

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“It's a disgrace the Prime Minister is setting off on his summer holidays in the midst of this crisis, and only weeks before leaving Number 10.

“His premiership is ending in the style he always ran it - as a means to benefit himself and lead a lavish lifestyle while the economy burns. I'm sure that Scotland will remember his legacy of laziness and corruption.

"The so-called solutions from both of his potential successors will only lead us deeper down this hole. Rishi Sunak was the chancellor under whose watch this crisis began, and Liz Truss is happy to hide fantasy economics behind Thatcher fancy-dress.”

Alba depute leader Kenny MacAskill accused Johnson of going “off on a lifeboat” while the economy sinks.

He said: “While the British economy sinks like the Titanic into a sea of deep inflation, instead of going down with his ship after the disaster he has caused, Boris Johnson is off on a lifeboat to spend the rest of his life on holiday. 

“Scotland generates enough electricity to power every home in the country. We are self-efficient in oil and gas yet our people are being hammered with soaring energy bills and prices. These are the arguments that ordinary Scots understand, and those which most be the basis of a popular movement to bend the next Prime Minister to the will of the people of Scotland."

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Asked who would be in charge while Johnson was away, the Prime Minister’s official spokesperson said: “It will be the standard pattern.

“The Prime Minister will be updated as required… the Deputy Prime Minister and, as ever with a Cabinet government, other ministers will be on hand to support as needed.”

It comes after Johnson and his wife Carrie threw a wedding party last weekend at the grand Cotswolds estate of a major Tory donor.

The Johnsons had originally been planning to throw their wedding party at the Prime Minister's official country residence, Chequers, but he faced backlash over the plans after he announced he would leave office, and the PM and his wife instead hosted family and friends at the 18th-century Daylesford House.