𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

David Lammy has what’s left of the summer to enjoy his grace-and-favour mansion weeks after being sacked in Andy Burnham’s reshuffle, reports claim. The former deputy prime minister has been allowed to retain the use of One Carlton Gardens until September.

Mr Lammy moved into the taxpayer-funded pad near Buckingham Palace not long after the general election in July 2024. Traditionally, One Carlton Gardens is where the foreign secretary lives. But the Labour MP for Tottenham retained it in last September’s reshuffle when Sir Keir Starmer moved him to the role of justice secretary.

He was also given the title of deputy prime minister by Sir Keir after Angela Rayner was forced to resign the role over her tax affairs.

The Times revealed on Sunday that unlike other ministers who were forced to move out after a reshuffle, Mr Lammy has not had to move back to his constituency.

A Labour source told the publication it made sense to give Lammy a “period of grace to move on”. Another described it as a sweetener for being sacked.

Mr Lammy is not the first MP to have been reluctant to move. Former prime minister Boris Johnson took three weeks to move out of the mansion after he quit as foreign secretary under Theresa May.

When the late foreign secretary Robin Cook lost the role in 2001, he was allowed to use a flat above the new occupant for two years.

Grade II*-listed Carlton Gardens was designed by the British architects, John Nash and Sir James Pennethorne.

It dates back to around 1828 and is hailed for its stucco, slate roofs, Ionic column porch, moulded cornice and balustraded parapet.

The townhouse overlooks St James’s Park and the Mall. It has served as the official ministerial residence of Britain’s foreign secretaries since 1945.

When Mr Lammy was replaced as foreign secretary by Yvette Cooper, he did, however, lose the option to stay at Chevening House in Kent. Ms Cooper was subsequently appointed health secretary after Andy Burnham entered Downing Street.

The house is used as a country retreat by the foreign secretary and is set within 3,000 acres between Sevenoaks and Biggin Hill.