Cameron gives Hague and Clegg grand house share

AS partners in a coalition government they are already getting used to sharing power – but now Nick Clegg and William Hague will also be sharing a country mansion.
By The Newsroom
Published 19th May 2010, 10:09 BST
Updated 19th May 2010, 10:09 BST

The two Yorkshire MPs – Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary in David Cameron's Government – will both have use of Chevening, a 115-room property set in a 3,500-acre estate in Kent.

The red brick property, built between 1616 and 1630, comes complete with a lake and was left to the nation in 1967 by the seventh Earl of Stanhope on condition it was used by the Prime Minister, a cabinet Minister or a descendant of King George VI. It is usually the country home of the Foreign Secretary – and hosted the wedding of Robin Cook to his secretary Gaynor Regan in 1998 – but Mr Cameron has decided Mr Hague, MP for Richmond, should share it with his own Liberal Democrat deputy.

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Awarding Chevening to Sheffield Hallam MP Mr Clegg – albeit as part of a house-sharing arrangement – will be seen as a further indication by Mr Cameron of his commitment to the Tory-Lib Dem alliance.

The Prime Minister will use Chequers, the 16th-century Buckinghamshire retreat of Prime Ministers as far back as David Lloyd George, who left office in 1922.

And Chancellor George Osborne will have use of Dorneywood, also in Buckinghamshire.

Related topics:David CameronWilliam HagueGovernment