Rishi Sunak is heading to California for what he says will be a “special trip” with his family this summer. The UK prime minister is flying to the US on Wednesday with his wife, Akshata Murty, and his two daughters, Krishna and Anoushka, for their first “proper” family holiday in four years. Explaining why they were heading to California, he told Nick Ferrari’s LBC radio show: “We’re going to California, which is where I met my wife, so it’s very special to us, but the kids are very excited because I’m taking them to Disneyland.” He also said he relaxed best by “spending time with my girls which I don’t do enough of”, but did manage to watch the Barbie film with them recently, which was “very pink” but provided “good escapism”. Asked to name his daughters’ favourite Disney characters, he said: “They have sadly grown out of all the princesses, which was a great phase. There’s a new, well not that new any more, Star Wars bit of Disneyland which I’m very excited about so they rather fear that we’re going to have to spend more time there than they would like.” The deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, will be left in charge of the country in Sunak’s absence, which is expected to last for just over a week. The prime minister’s press secretary said Sunak would be getting “daily updates from his private office, particularly on anything that is urgent”. Sunak’s press secretary said he had tried to go on holiday after the Conservative leadership contest, adding: “He was in a Spanish island for all of about 15 hours, then he came back due to the Queen’s passing.”