‘Make royal wedding bank holiday an annual event’

Next year's one-off royal wedding bank holiday could become an annual extra day off under proposals put forward today.

The public holiday for Prince William's marriage to Kate Middleton is on April 29. But from 2012 it could be shifted six days earlier to St George's Day in England.

It would bring the number of bank holidays in England and Wales to nine — the same as Scotland — though in Wales the new public holiday would be moved to St David's Day on March 1.

Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi has tabled a Bill to honour England's patron saint with a national holiday.

St Andrew's Day in Scotland and St Patrick's Day in Northern Ireland are both public holidays.