Boris Johnson ‘will live at Chequers mansion for rest of premiership’

PM said to be preapring to spend only ‘the odd day’ at Downing Street before Truss or Sunak takes over

Boris Johnson will reportedly spend the final weeks of his premiership at Chequers, the grace-and-favour country house in Buckinghamshire made available to the prime minister.

Mr Johnson has been accused of treating the final days in office as “one big party” after taking a holiday in Greece this week – his second break in as many weeks.

After returning from holiday, the PM and his wife Carrie will spend most of his final fortnight living at Chequers, according to The Telegraph, before temporarily moving into a home provided by a friend.

“He has already spent most of his time there since the resignation,” a source told the newspaper. “I think Boris will probably spend the odd day in Downing Street but I think they will mainly be at Chequers.”

The sight of removal vans in Downing Street on Monday – a few weeks before Johnson’s exit on 6 September – prompted questions about where and how the PM is planning to spend his final weeks in office.

Despite the deepening cost of living crisis, the PM will only work during his second summer holiday this week if it is “urgent”, No 10 admitted on Monday.

Johnson will not receive any official papers during his week in Greece, his spokesperson said, only hours after a senior Tory claimed he would still be “going through his red box”.

The removal vans outside No 10 prompted speculation that Johnson will take a large amount of furniture from his lavishly refurbished flat.

He is allowed to take any fittings that he paid for himself, although many were originally paid for by a Tory donor – though there are no signs of the infamous gold wallpaper being taken out.

The spokesperson was unable to say whether Mr Johnson will return to the Downing Street to live there for the final fortnight of his premiership before he is replaced by Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss, the favourite in the Tory contest.

Labour accused Johnson of treating his final weeks in office as “one big party” after he was filmed shopping for groceries in a supermarket in Greece at the weekend.

Chequers, in Buckinghamshire, the official country residence of the PM (Steve Parsons/PA) (PA Archive)

Greek news websites first reported that Johnson and his wife Carrie were seen in Nea Makri, a coastal town near Athens only a few hours away from where his father Stanley has a villa.

The PM returned from a holiday in Slovenia only last week, having enjoyed a break at a mountain resort which offered “healing energies”.

A Labour spokesperson said: “On the evidence of the last few months it seems to make little difference if the prime minister is in the office or on holiday.”

Keir Starmer – who has also been accused of going “missing” during the cost of living crisis – said he was not “not going to apologise” for taking a holiday.

The Labour leader, who took a break in Mallorca, said it was his first family holiday in there years. “I’ve also got another job that’s really important and that is I’m a dad,” he told the BBC on Monday.

Labour’s shadow climate minister Ed Miliband told Good Morning Britain on Tuesday that “of course, just like families across the country, MPs can take holidays” – but said it was a question of whether the Tory government has “answers to the challenges that the country is facing”.