Asked whether there were parties at Chequers during the pandemic, he replied: “So people say.”īoris and Carrie Johnson with their daughter, Romy, making a video call at Chequers. Johnson’s former adviser Dominic Cummings hinted in an interview with the website UnHerd last year that the Partygate investigation should have taken in goings-on at Chequers. “The whole family have a massive sense of entitlement,” harrumphed one former cabinet minister. Presumably the officials who referred Johnson’s diary entries to the police felt that was at least unclear. Rachel Johnson, the former prime minister’s sister, displayed similar insouciance when she told LBC listeners on Tuesday, “as far as I am aware, all the rules were followed whenever I went to Chequers, which wasn’t often enough”. It would have come as a surprise to many members of the public at the time that “commuting” – or moving their family to a safer place – was within the rules. So in line with clinical guidance and to minimise the risk to her, they were based at Chequers during that period, with the prime minister commuting to Downing Street to work.” It later emerged that even before that, Carrie Johnson – then his fiancee – had based herself at Chequers, with the prime minister commuting back and forth to No 10 during the early days of the pandemic.Įxplaining this arrangement after it was first reported almost two years later, Johnson’s official spokesperson said: “At the time, as you know, Mrs Johnson was heavily pregnant, in a vulnerable category, and advised to minimise social contacts.
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“It’s cosy, you’re looked after, your every need is attended to.” Prime ministers are free to entertain at the house – as long as they pick up the costs of food and drink.Īfter Johnson was hospitalised with Covid in April 2020, it was to Chequers that he returned to recuperate. “They treat you as important, which Boris would have liked,” said one former visitor who knows Johnson well. It is formally owned by a trust, and MPs and officials who have visited describe Chequers as comfortable, despite its size, with attentive staff always ready with a cup of coffee or a bite to eat. They spent Christmas 2019, after Johnson’s landslide election victory, at No 10, where Mrs Johnson later oversaw a notoriously costly redesign.īut over time they came to spend an increasing amount of time at the wood-panelled Buckinghamshire residence, which is decorated with paintings and antiques and set in large, heavily guarded grounds. Even after resigning, Johnson and his wife were reluctantly dissuaded from holding a lavish wedding bash in the grounds of the 16th-century mansion, before handing back the keys. “It’s part of the grandeur that he thinks is his due,” said a former colleague.
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