A SENIOR Tory has denied Boris Johnson has “thrown in the towel” despite him going on a second foreign holiday as his premiership peters out.

With barely three weeks left until he leaves Number 10, the Prime Minister has flown out to Greece for a week, just days after returning from another holiday in Slovenia.

It was reported over the weekend that Mr Johnson had been spotted shopping alongside wife Carrie in a supermarket in Nea Makri, a town to the east of Athens.

His latest break comes amid accusations he is leading a “zombie government” that is failing to get to grips with the scale of the cost of living crisis, especially skyrocketing energy bills.

Removal vans were today photographed outside No10.

Downing Street today confirmed Mr Johnson was on leave until the weekend, but insisted he would be kept informed of any “urgent issues” while on holiday.

“The Prime Minister is on holiday this week,” a spokesman said, adding the PM had paid for the trip. 

He added: “As is the way with prime ministers as you know by virtue of their role they’ll obviously be kept informed on any urgent issues and make decisions particularly those (related to) national security for example.

“If there were urgent decisions that required the PM’s input he will, of course, be involved in that. 

“But the Deputy Prime Minister [Dominic Raab] is able to be deputised for meetings should they come up but as far as I’m aware there are no such meetings currently scheduled.”

Asked if MrJohnson’s holiday could have waited a few weeks, his spokesman said: “I can’t get into the decision around timings but he is on leave this week.

“He will be back this weekend.”

Mr Johnson will resign on September 6, when one of the Tory leadership hopefuls, Rishi Sunk or Liz Truss, takes over.

Former cabinet minister Brandon Lewis also defended Mr Johnson’s double holiday, rejecting any suggestion that he had “thrown in the towel”.

The former Northern Ireland Secretary told LBC: “Even when you are not in the office in Downing Street you are working.

“He’s probably in about his second week [of] holiday in the last year or so, certainly this year. So while somebody is away, whether they are secretary of state or let alone the Prime Minister, they will be continuing to work.

“I can assure you he will still be going through inboxes, he will still be dealing with national security issues where relevant. Being out of the country does not mean the Prime Minister stops working.”

Labour accused the Prime Minister of treating recent months as “one big party”.

A spokesperson said: “On the evidence of the last few months it seems to make little difference if the Prime Minister is in the office or on holiday as he has continually failed to meet the challenge of the Tory cost-of-living crisis. It’s all just one big party for Boris Johnson while the country struggles to pay their bills.”

Mr Johnson’s spokesman said that the Prime Minister would remain “contactable”.

“He will be contactable. Any urgent decisions that need to be made, he will obviously be involved and will leave that but he is on leave.”