William Hague will take charge of the day-to-day running of the country for the next few weeks as David Cameron and Nick Clegg join a mass post-Olympics exodus from the UK today.

The prime minister is reported to be heading to Spain while the deputy prime minister is also travelling to the popular Mediterranean tourist destination for his traditional two-week sojourn with his wife's family.

Clegg caused a stir last year when a joke that he "forgot" he was running the country while Cameron was away was seized upon by opponents as evidence he was out of his depth.

At the time the prime minister issued a statement from the Middle East insisting that "just because I leave the country doesn't mean I am not in charge".

The pair have avoided similar confusion this year by going away at the same time and leaving the foreign secretary to mind the shop

Labour leader leader Ed Miliband is keeping the Olympic theme going by spending a fortnight in Greece.

Cameron, who attended a series of events at the Games, said yesterday that he needed a holiday as much as anyone, as he defended the timing of his departure at a press conference celebrating the success of London 2012 and outlining work to ensure long-term benefits.

"I am a great believer that politicians are human beings and they need to have holidays," he said.

"I don't call it annual leave, I call it a holiday and I am looking forward to having a holiday. If you don't think politicians ought to have holidays I think you need to have a serious think.

"But I'll be back for the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games."

He said the Olympics had proved that the UK's "time has come" as he sought to harness the feel-good factor generated by Team GB's huge medal haul to efforts to drag the UK out of the economic mire.

"You only need two words to sum up these Games: Britain delivered," he told reporters.

"We showed the world what we are made of, we reminded ourselves what we can do and we demonstrated that you should never ever count Team GB down and out.

"We in this country are going to make sure that these are not just Games that made history but the Games that helped to shape our future.

"Over the last couple of weeks we have looked in the mirror and we like what we have seen as a country."

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