Brown to holiday in traditional English seaside resort of Southwold

But Gordon Brown appears to be far more comfortable with the idea of sitting in a deckchair on a British beach.

He is set to spend his summer holiday enjoying a traditional bucket and spade break in the Suffolk seaside town of Southwold, it was revealed last night.

Beachwear: How Gordon and Sarah Brown might look when they holiday in Southwold this summer

It will be the second year running he has holidayed in the UK.

The Prime Minister will snub the lavish foreign breaks favoured by Tony Blair, who he took over from a year ago.

The frugal holiday contrasts sharply with those enjoyed by Mr Blair when he was in Number 10 - which included stays at Sir Cliff Richard's Barbados home and the Florida mansion owned by Bee Gee Robin Gibb.

But Mr Brown will hope that this holiday lasts longer than his 2007 trip to Dorset, which was cut short by crisis meetings over foot and mouth disease. Instead the PM, his wife Sarah and sons John and Fraser had to make do with a few snatched days at their home in Scotland.

This summer, They are expected to try to spend a full week in Southwold, a pretty market town with an award winning beach, a working lighthouse, pier, harbour and a cliff-top cannon.

Mr Brown's decision to holiday in Britain could be a reaction to the gathering economic misery and to support British tourism.

In demand: Southwold's signature brightly-coloured beach huts, which cost only £75 to build in the 1960s, now sell for £35,000

Similarly, Tory leader David Cameron is expected to travel to Cornwall at the end of July.

The pair hope to set an example to the growing number of holidaymakers who can no longer afford to fly abroad because of the rising cost of living coupled with the strong Euro.

And although Liberal Democrats leader Nick Clegg will be going to central Spain for a fortnight, he will be staying with the parents of his Spanish wife Miram Gonzalez Durantez, so he should keep down costs.

The politicians' apparent frugality will please voters concerned that their political leaders are not 'feeling' the effects of the economic downturn.

In the past five years, the amount of money MPs have taken in salaries and expenses has gone up by 64 per cent from £100million in 2001 to £155million last year.

After the recent MP and MEP expenses scandals, party chiefs are terrified they will be seen as detached figures idly sipping chilled champagne on the Riviera while many taxpayers struggle to meet mortgage payments or run their car because of soaring prices at the pumps.

This cross-party decision to take holidays at home will bring cheer to former Labour minister Margaret Beckett, who has long championed the pleasures and advantages of an annual caravan holiday.

While she was laughed at by some Government colleagues for her 1960s-style pursuit, the effects of the credit crunch have forced British people to think again about caravans.

It is understood that Gordon Brown and his family will holiday in the locality of Southwold, which counts author George Orwell among its former residents, if not in the town itself.