Charlotte Vine joined as a steward in 2004. It is said she and Carrie Johnson fell out over the “inappropriate handling” of a personal item in her husband’s bathroom – The PM is accused of trying to bag the country home before Theresa May had left
–
The head housekeeper at Chequers has resigned after claims of tensions with Carrie Johnson.
Charlotte Vine MBE, who first worked at the prime minister’s official country residence in 2004, left with a payoff in 2020 after signing a non-disclosure agreement.
Relations were said to have deteriorated to such an extent that the prime minister’s wife refused to stay there when she was on duty. One source claimed that they fell out after [Carrie Johnson](https://archive.ph/5FME5) made a personal accusation against Vine, which she denied. A spokeswoman for Johnson insisted that there was no dispute between them.
The Johnsons are also said to have clashed with other Chequers staff over [their “chaotic” use](https://archive.ph/8oqp2) of the 16th-century Buckinghamshire manor house. In addition, cuts in the number of servants at Chequers ordered by David Cameron ten years ago during the austerity era have been reversed under Boris Johnson.
According to one source, up to four extra members of staff were taken on.
The allegations emerged as pressure mounted Johnson from backbenchers after a report by the senior civil servant Sue Gray into lockdown-breaking parties. Gray said that there had been a “lack of respect and poor treatment” for cleaners and security staff.
Vine is said to have found her departure from Chequers “traumatic”. A spokeswoman for the prime minister’s wife said: “It is untrue to suggest there was a personal dispute between Mrs Johnson and the head housekeeper. Nor was there any request from Mrs Johnson for staffing changes.”
However, sources said the tensions between Boris Johnson and Chequers staff are said to have started before he became prime minister. It is claimed that he and his future wife tried to “book” the use of Chequers [before Theresa May left office](https://archive.ph/4h5r8) in July 2019. They were accused of failing to give enough notice before arriving. An insider said: “The Johnsons were trying to arrange to get into Chequers before the Mays had gone. When he knew he was going to take over, they were trying to book ahead.”
The problems continued after Johnson took office. “It was chaos, ‘Can we come now?’ or ‘We’re coming tomorrow’. They were told they couldn’t because there were no staff.”
The clash is alleged to have begun within weeks of Johnson winning power. A source said: “Carrie took something Charlotte said completely the wrong way. It started over a catering matter. It led to Carrie refusing to go to Chequers when Charlotte was there.”
A minister said: “Before going to Chequers Carrie would ask, ‘Is Charlotte there?’ If she was, she would put off the visit, find out when she was off duty and go then, or not go at all.”
Vine left Chequers in January 2020. She resigned after facing disciplinary proceedings that were later dropped. She had been accused of the “inappropriate handling of a personal item” belonging to Johnson that was found in his Chequers bathroom. The nature of the item is unknown. She denied wrongdoing and received a payoff.
Vine joined Chequers as a steward in when Sir Tony Blair was prime minister. In 2009 she became a housekeeper at Dorneywood, another government home in Buckinghamshire. She returned in 2013 as head housekeeper when Cameron was in power, and later worked there for May.
The taxpayer contributes £916,000 a year towards the upkeep of Chequers and it is mainly staffed by members of the armed forces. Johnson pays for food, drink and entertainment himself.
A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “Staffing arrangements are entirely a matter for the [Chequers Trust](https://archive.ph/2Zie9) and we would not be able to respond on why an individual left their post. A full and fair disciplinary process was followed in this [Vine’s] instance. The prime minister and his family do not and have not made requests for staffing changes.”
*House of history*
Chequers answered a particularly first-world problem in the early 20th century (Jack Blackburn writes). Until then, prime ministers could be relied on to have their own country estates.
Suddenly, however, the likes of David Lloyd George (child of a schoolmaster) and Herbert Asquith (a Huddersfield wool trader’s son) did not have that sort of place in which to entertain.
To solve this dilemma, the childless first lord of the Admiralty, Arthur Lee, Viscount Fareham, left his home to the nation. It is now owned by the Chequers Trust and can cost the taxpayer a £1 million a year.
It had been a 16th-century manor, with 1,500 acres in the Chiltern Hills, built by William Hawtrey, high sheriff of Buckingham and guardian to the sister of the short-lived monarch, Lady Jane Grey. Lady Mary Grey was imprisoned there by Elizabeth I, after marrying without consent.
One of David Cameron’s aides slept in her room and reported, spookily, that the door had bolted itself shut.
The weight of the building’s history comes after January 1921, when Lloyd George moved in. Winston Churchill spent wartime weekends there, unless the moon was giving the Luftwaffe too good a chance of bombing the place.
Richard Nixon liked it so much he paid for the installation of a swimming pool, though Margaret Thatcher, ever-watchful of the cost of running a home, ruled that the heating should be turned off.
(Embeded in the article with those words and no credit for whoever took the photo)
Why the fuck are we paying £1m a year for a glorified timeshare for the Prime Minister?
Carrie Antoinette strikes again.
>Carrie Johnson fell out over the “inappropriate handling” of a personal item in her husband’s bathroom
Was a butt-plug *(allegedly)*
*saved you a click
Looks like media knives are coming out for Mrs Johnson. She’ll be taking blame for everything pretty soon. ( I don’t care so long as Johnson himself is also faces consequences)
Looks like media knives are coming out for Mrs Johnson. She’ll be taking blame for everything pretty soon. ( I don’t care so long as Johnson himself is also faces consequences)
Was she “competition”?
Remember, according to the right wing, Carrie and her liberal, green views are the sole reason Boris isn’t God King of Britain yet.
Everything that man and women touches turns to shit.
Fuck off Boris
seems to be a pattern
Boris is a little man under the thump of a young and ambitious bride.
Soon she be planning taking over Buckingham Palace.
Between a fat lying sack of shit and Princess NutNut working at either 10 Downing Street or Chequers must be an awful experience.
The more I hear about Carrie, the more I get the impression she is one of those people who will be nice simply to get a leg up until she gets to the position in society that she thinks she deserves and will be a complete arsehole to anyone who she deems below her.
Sounds like Carrie was envious and worried she would be a target for Johnson’s affection, which as his former mistress she would know all too well.
15 comments
Charlotte Vine joined as a steward in 2004. It is said she and Carrie Johnson fell out over the “inappropriate handling” of a personal item in her husband’s bathroom – The PM is accused of trying to bag the country home before Theresa May had left
–
The head housekeeper at Chequers has resigned after claims of tensions with Carrie Johnson.
Charlotte Vine MBE, who first worked at the prime minister’s official country residence in 2004, left with a payoff in 2020 after signing a non-disclosure agreement.
Relations were said to have deteriorated to such an extent that the prime minister’s wife refused to stay there when she was on duty. One source claimed that they fell out after [Carrie Johnson](https://archive.ph/5FME5) made a personal accusation against Vine, which she denied. A spokeswoman for Johnson insisted that there was no dispute between them.
The Johnsons are also said to have clashed with other Chequers staff over [their “chaotic” use](https://archive.ph/8oqp2) of the 16th-century Buckinghamshire manor house. In addition, cuts in the number of servants at Chequers ordered by David Cameron ten years ago during the austerity era have been reversed under Boris Johnson.
According to one source, up to four extra members of staff were taken on.
The allegations emerged as pressure mounted Johnson from backbenchers after a report by the senior civil servant Sue Gray into lockdown-breaking parties. Gray said that there had been a “lack of respect and poor treatment” for cleaners and security staff.
Vine is said to have found her departure from Chequers “traumatic”. A spokeswoman for the prime minister’s wife said: “It is untrue to suggest there was a personal dispute between Mrs Johnson and the head housekeeper. Nor was there any request from Mrs Johnson for staffing changes.”
However, sources said the tensions between Boris Johnson and Chequers staff are said to have started before he became prime minister. It is claimed that he and his future wife tried to “book” the use of Chequers [before Theresa May left office](https://archive.ph/4h5r8) in July 2019. They were accused of failing to give enough notice before arriving. An insider said: “The Johnsons were trying to arrange to get into Chequers before the Mays had gone. When he knew he was going to take over, they were trying to book ahead.”
The problems continued after Johnson took office. “It was chaos, ‘Can we come now?’ or ‘We’re coming tomorrow’. They were told they couldn’t because there were no staff.”
The clash is alleged to have begun within weeks of Johnson winning power. A source said: “Carrie took something Charlotte said completely the wrong way. It started over a catering matter. It led to Carrie refusing to go to Chequers when Charlotte was there.”
A minister said: “Before going to Chequers Carrie would ask, ‘Is Charlotte there?’ If she was, she would put off the visit, find out when she was off duty and go then, or not go at all.”
Vine left Chequers in January 2020. She resigned after facing disciplinary proceedings that were later dropped. She had been accused of the “inappropriate handling of a personal item” belonging to Johnson that was found in his Chequers bathroom. The nature of the item is unknown. She denied wrongdoing and received a payoff.
Vine joined Chequers as a steward in when Sir Tony Blair was prime minister. In 2009 she became a housekeeper at Dorneywood, another government home in Buckinghamshire. She returned in 2013 as head housekeeper when Cameron was in power, and later worked there for May.
The taxpayer contributes £916,000 a year towards the upkeep of Chequers and it is mainly staffed by members of the armed forces. Johnson pays for food, drink and entertainment himself.
A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “Staffing arrangements are entirely a matter for the [Chequers Trust](https://archive.ph/2Zie9) and we would not be able to respond on why an individual left their post. A full and fair disciplinary process was followed in this [Vine’s] instance. The prime minister and his family do not and have not made requests for staffing changes.”
*House of history*
Chequers answered a particularly first-world problem in the early 20th century (Jack Blackburn writes). Until then, prime ministers could be relied on to have their own country estates.
Suddenly, however, the likes of David Lloyd George (child of a schoolmaster) and Herbert Asquith (a Huddersfield wool trader’s son) did not have that sort of place in which to entertain.
To solve this dilemma, the childless first lord of the Admiralty, Arthur Lee, Viscount Fareham, left his home to the nation. It is now owned by the Chequers Trust and can cost the taxpayer a £1 million a year.
It had been a 16th-century manor, with 1,500 acres in the Chiltern Hills, built by William Hawtrey, high sheriff of Buckingham and guardian to the sister of the short-lived monarch, Lady Jane Grey. Lady Mary Grey was imprisoned there by Elizabeth I, after marrying without consent.
One of David Cameron’s aides slept in her room and reported, spookily, that the door had bolted itself shut.
The weight of the building’s history comes after January 1921, when Lloyd George moved in. Winston Churchill spent wartime weekends there, unless the moon was giving the Luftwaffe too good a chance of bombing the place.
Richard Nixon liked it so much he paid for the installation of a swimming pool, though Margaret Thatcher, ever-watchful of the cost of running a home, ruled that the heating should be turned off.
*Simon Walters*
Tuesday May 31 2022, 12.01am BST, The Times
>[It is thought that Charlotte Vine has fallen out with Carrie Johnson](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/%2Fmethode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2F2fe4bd3e-e03f-11ec-8bdd-c253e043f5f0.jpg?crop=622%2C415%2C62%2C190&resize=400&quality=3)
(Embeded in the article with those words and no credit for whoever took the photo)
Why the fuck are we paying £1m a year for a glorified timeshare for the Prime Minister?
Carrie Antoinette strikes again.
>Carrie Johnson fell out over the “inappropriate handling” of a personal item in her husband’s bathroom
Was a butt-plug *(allegedly)*
*saved you a click
Looks like media knives are coming out for Mrs Johnson. She’ll be taking blame for everything pretty soon. ( I don’t care so long as Johnson himself is also faces consequences)
Looks like media knives are coming out for Mrs Johnson. She’ll be taking blame for everything pretty soon. ( I don’t care so long as Johnson himself is also faces consequences)
Was she “competition”?
Remember, according to the right wing, Carrie and her liberal, green views are the sole reason Boris isn’t God King of Britain yet.
Everything that man and women touches turns to shit.
Fuck off Boris
seems to be a pattern
Boris is a little man under the thump of a young and ambitious bride.
Soon she be planning taking over Buckingham Palace.
Between a fat lying sack of shit and Princess NutNut working at either 10 Downing Street or Chequers must be an awful experience.
The more I hear about Carrie, the more I get the impression she is one of those people who will be nice simply to get a leg up until she gets to the position in society that she thinks she deserves and will be a complete arsehole to anyone who she deems below her.
Sounds like Carrie was envious and worried she would be a target for Johnson’s affection, which as his former mistress she would know all too well.