The biggest row in Westminster rumbles on. No, it’s not Rishi against the spending ministers; nor Keir Starmer’s uneasy truce with Angela Rayner. Like a Jane Austen novel, the question centres on a grand country house, where passions have been aroused by a question of succession. The issue is of course Chevening: the 115-room grace-and-favour residence traditionally been used as the Foreign Secretary’s country house which the demoted Dominic Raab refuses to relinquish.
It’s not been a happy month for Raab; shifted in the reshuffle to the Ministry of Justice, he is reported to have demanded the post of Deputy Prime Minister as a consolation prize – a title which apparently now irritates him so much that he snaps at anyone who addresses him that way. His efforts meanwhile to retain the use of Chevening have raised a fair few hackles in Westminster, given that his successor Liz Truss has had to host Foreign Office meetings at the residence since she inherited Raab’s scheduled appointments last month.
Britain’s best politics newsletters
You get two free articles each week when you sign up to The Spectator’s emails.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in