Plans to replace May Day holiday with autumn break

THE May Day bank holiday could be scrapped and replaced with a new holiday in the autumn under plans being considered by the UK government.

The possible move to a bank holiday in October - potentially called UK Day or Trafalgar Day - follows calls from the tourism industry for a better spread of public holidays across the year.

Unions accused the Tories of attacking the celebration of international workers' day on 1 May. But government sources denied that there was any political dimension to the proposal and stressed that it was subject to consultation.

Tourism minister John Penrose said: "Tourism businesses in the UK are brilliant at providing a quality experience for their customers all year round, but government should play its part in helping them do so.

"An autumn bank holiday, possibly to be branded as a new UK Day, would not only help the industry but also give us all a new focus for celebrating the best of what this country does, and all the things that make us a world-class nation.

"But before we try to take this further, it's really important that everyone has a chance to consider it properly."

Any change would not take place before 2013. There are additional bank holidays this year and next year to celebrate the royal wedding and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee respectively.

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, criticised any move away from the May Day bank holiday - introduced in 1978 by Labour prime minister James Callaghan's government - and called for an extra day off instead.

"There is strong support for an extra public holiday as the UK has the stingiest allocation in Europe. But the last thing we need is for the government to mess around with established bank holidays that workers and businesses have built their schedules around," he said.

Backbench Tory MP Andrew Rosindell, Conservative MP for Romford, said: "I don't think we need a workers' day any more than we need a day for pensioners or any other group. It is silly."