Cameron lets Gove stay in grace-and-favour mansion
Is olive branch sign their Brexit war is finally over?
DAVID Cameron has extended an olive branch to Michael Gove by letting him continue living in a £25million grace-and-favour home normally reserved for the Foreign Secretary.
Mr Gove has been at One Carlton Gardens since being granted the use of the palatial central London property by Boris Johnson two years ago.
Tory MPs had speculated that Lord Cameron might evict him in revenge for Mr Gove’s leading role in the Brexit referendum which ended his premiership in 2016.
But yesterday Whitehall sources confirmed that Lord Cameron has made the peace offering to his former friend as he seeks to move on from bitter Brexit divisions.
A former minister said: ‘By rights Carlton Gardens is for the use of the foreign secretary – Cameron was fully entitled to ask him to leave. There was a time when relations were so bad he might have done that. The fact that he is letting him stay shows that things have thawed a bit.’
A source close to Lord Cameron said he was ‘happy’ for Mr Gove to continue living there as he already has a house in London.
One Carlton Gardens has been the official residence of the foreign secretary since the Second World War when Labour’s Ernest Bevin complained about living in a ‘shabby flat’ in Downing Street.
The six-storey property, a stone’s throw from Trafalgar Square, is considered the grandest of the London grace-and-favour properties available to ministers. It covers two floors and has two dining rooms for entertaining plus a three-bedroom flat.
Mr Gove has lived at One Carlton Gardens since November 2021 after his separation from Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine.
The gesture from Lord Cameron came as it emerged his promotion to Foreign Secretary has caused anxiety in Taiwan after he championed warmer ties with China both during his time as premier and after he left Downing Street.
Vincent Chin-Hsiang Yao, who became ambassador to the UK this month, said officials were ‘watching very closely’ to see if the ‘ supportive’ stance towards Taiwan taken by his predecessor James Cleverly changes.
China regards the island, which elected a pro- sovereignty president earlier this month, as a renegade province.