Inside Chevening House: Raab and Truss tussle over country estate

“Let it never be said that this government does not understand the housing crisis,” said political correspondent Henry Zeffman, after Downing Street resolved a spat between two senior ministers laying claim to a sprawling grace-and-favour estate in Kent.

Chevening House is “traditionally used by the foreign secretary”, The Times journalist explained. But after being replaced by Liz Truss in last month’s cabinet reshuffle, Dominic Raab apparently objected to losing the property along with his former role.

Truss parked her “tanks on the lawn” earlier this week by sharing pictures of herself walking around the grounds of the 115-room mansion with the foreign ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, said The Telegraph.

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“Forget Downton Abbey. The latest country house drama is being played out in the cabinet,” wrote the newspaper’s Harry de Quetteville, describing Truss and Raab as “two greedy babies” at “war”.

Now, Boris Johnson has tried to call a truce by handing the country home to them both.

Home to lords and earls

While the estate has been traced back to the early 13th century, the house was built between 1615 and 1630, by the 13th Lord Dacre.

Chevening was later owned and extended by the 1st Earl Stanhope, a chief minister to King George I. It passed through seven generations of the family until 1967, when the 7th Earl Stanhope, a Conservative politician, left it to the nation upon his death.

‘Hell of a prize’

The 3,000-acre estate stretches between Sevenoaks and Biggin Hill in Kent, and includes woodlands, gardens, ancient Roman tombstones and a maze. There is also a lake, on which Johnson took the Czech Republic’s then deputy foreign minister Ivo Sramek out rowing in 2017.

Pictures from inside the Grade I-listed house – made up of four large buildings – show marble fireplaces, rare armour, libraries and chandeliers. “Hundreds of shotguns, pistols and swords” line the walls of the hall, installed by the Stanhopes in the 1700s, said Quetteville in The Telegraph.

The prime minister’s sister, Rachel Johnson, once complained that there “never any toiletries at Chevening”. But “even without toiletries, Chevening is a hell of a prize”, said Quetteville.

‘Fripperies and foibles’

Following the September reshuffle, a “very undiplomatic row” broke out at the Foreign Office over who should use the country retreat, said The Spectator’s Steerpike.

Although Raab was demoted to justice secretary, he reportedly believed he had a claim to the property because he had also been given the title of deputy PM – causing a “major headache” for No. 10, said Steerpike. Under the terms of the Chevening Estate Act of 1959, the PM has to nominate someone to occupy the house.

Raab may have had a point. The last deputy PM, Nick Clegg, shared Chevening with the foreign secretary. And when Johnson was foreign secretary, he had to share the estate with the Brexit secretary and international trade secretary.

When the row erupted over who should now have residence, Johnson told reporters that “the people’s government does not bother with fripperies and foibles of this kind”.

But The Times’ Zeffman reported today that following “several weeks of awkward questions”, the PM is understood to have intervened and decreed that both Truss and Raab should have access.

A source close to Truss said: “Dom and Liz are good friends and will make it work.”