Raab tries to keep Chevening
DOMINIC Raab is attempting to cling on to his graceand-favour country residence despite being ousted as foreign secretary.
Mr Raab was demoted to Justice Secretary in the reshuffle, but was given the title of Deputy Prime Minister to cushion the blow.
Now it has emerged that he is seeking to retain the use of Chevening House, the mansion in Kent traditionally reserved for the foreign secretary.
The 115-room property, near Sevenoaks, is set in 3,000 acres of land. Its gardens have a tennis court, a lake, a maze, a parterre and extensive woodlands.
It would normally be expected to go to his successor Liz Truss, but Mr Raab believes his new role means he should be able to keep it. The Chevening Estate Act of 1959 says that the Prime Minister decides the ‘nominated person’ to occupy the 17th century mansion.
No10 said there is not ‘one single post’ that is entitled to use the Grade I-listed building, though by convention access is usually bestowed on the foreign secretary. ‘There is a long process in place for nominating the occupants of Chevening House and we will update in due course,’ the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.
The spokesman declined to be drawn on the prospect of Mr Raab and Miss Truss getting access to the home under a sort of timeshare. Downing Street has not denied suggestions that Mr Raab resisted his change of roles during a tense conversation with the Prime Minister during which he was made Justice Secretary.
Mr Raab’s demotion came after he faced an extraordinary backlash when the Daily Mail revealed that while on holiday in Crete he had failed to make a crucial phone call to the Afghan foreign minister to seek urgent help airlifting translators out of Afghanistan as the Taliban advanced on Kabul.
It would not be the first time senior ministers have tussled over access to the palatial estate.
Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, then the Lib Dem leader, and the Conservative foreign secretary William Hague shared Chevening as a ‘joint tenancy’ during the coalition government.
Mr Johnson eventually became the ‘prime nominee’ to the mansion as foreign secretary in 2016 after bids from his Cabinet colleagues David Davis and Liam Fox.