Boris Johnson took a mysterious jaunt to a lavish country home last weekend with a 25-strong entourage, Heat Street can reveal.
Sources in the idyllic Bedfordshire village of Hinwick spotted the Foreign Secretary enjoying the warm weather, and forwarded the information to us.
Boris was enjoying the high life at the exclusive Hinwick House country home, which costs £25,000 to rent out for a weekend – though it is not clear whether he footed the bill himself.
Guests are subject to the attentions of the home’s substantial domestic staff, and can enjoy classic gentlemanly activities like hunting, shooting and croquet.
The Grade I-listed home sits in 38 acres of countryside and is kitted out with 20 bedrooms and its own deer park.
Boris may also appreciate the home’s Churchill Room, packed with memorabilia on the former PM, who is the subject of Boris’s latest book.
It has been suggested that the Boris crowd contemplated a day out at the Santa Pods drag racing track nearby, but demurred when they found there were no VIP tickets to be had.
Perhaps Hinwick has a special place in Tory hearts – a stay at the home was offered as a lot at the Conservative Party’s glittering black-tie fundraiser earlier this year.
Boris certainly has form when it comes to living it up in the country.
He was famously pictured playing cricket the day after Vote Leave won the EU Referendum – at Earl Spencer’s Althorp estate, a mere 15 miles from Hinwick.
And as the new master of the foreign office, he has access to his own pile – the grace-and-favour Chevening mansion in Kent.
However, Boris faces a fight over the lavish residence, which Theresa May declared he would have to share with Brexit secretary David Davis and international trade secretary Liam Fox.
Heat Street has asked Boris’s office for help unravelling this mystery, but they declined to comment.