Reeves beats Rayner in battle for keys to grace-and-favour Georgian mansion
RACHEL REEVES has been given the keys to Dorneywood after speculation that the grace-and-favour mansion might go to Angela Rayner instead.
The Chancellor is listed as the latest occupant of the 18th-century Georgian property and is understood to have had access to it since July.
The move is a break from Labour tradition, owing to the fact that Lord Prescott, when deputy prime minister, was allowed access to the 21-room mansion over Gordon Brown, the former chancellor.
Ms Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, would have been given Dorneywood if this precedent had been followed.
Generally, the Buckinghamshire house is used by chancellors of the exchequer, but the Prime Minister can grant it to any member of government.
The official website of Dorneywood has Ms Reeves listed as the current occupant. “July 2024-present – Rachel Reeves. Chancellor of the Exchequer,” the site states.
The property, whose former residents include Sir Anthony Eden, James Callaghan and Rishi Sunak, was donated to the National Trust in 1947 by Lord Courtauld-thomson, a British businessman. It had been used to house officers from allied air forces during the Second World War.
It sits in 215 acres of parkland and woodland, and boasts a swimming pool, conservatory and croquet lawn that was used by Baron Prescott.
In April, Jeremy Hunt, its former occupant, called a summit at Dorneywood to attract companies to the London stock market. The then chancellor invited the bosses of some of Britain’s most prominent private technology firms to meet on May 16 at the mansion. Like Chequers, the Prime Minister’s grace-and-favour home, and Chevening, which is usually used by the Foreign Secretary, the house is managed by a trust overseen by peers, aristocrats and heritage experts. Government departments can also request use of the house from the trust’s executive.
In 2022, Nazanin Zaghari-ratcliffe, the British-iranian national imprisoned in Tehran for nearly six years, was allowed use of Dorneywood as a “safe house”.
Mrs Zaghari-ratcliffe and her family were sworn to secrecy on the location of the property in an attempt to allow them to reunite in peace, outside of the glare of the media.