Boris and Carrie Johnson to hold wedding party at ‘billionaire Tory donor’s country pile’

Boris Johnson will hold his wedding party at a Grade 1 country manor house in the Cotswolds owned by billionaire Tory donor Lord Bamford, it was reported on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister and his wife Carrie will hold the celebration this weekend at Daylesford House in Gloucestershire, according to The Mirror.

The countryside house and surrounding grounds are owned by JCB chairman Lord Bamford who has, through his business interests, given over £10 million in cash and gifts to the Conservative Party since 2001.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “We do not comment on speculation regarding private or family matters which do not involve any ministerial declarations or taxpayer funds.”

Earlier this month it emerged that their wedding party would no longer be held at Chequers and had been moved to a different venue.

It had been claimed that the long-awaited celebration was one of the reasons the Prime Minister was determined to cling on as caretaker Tory leader over the summer.

Chequers, the grace-and-favour home of the prime minister, boasts a heated indoor swimming pool in the Orangery, a putting green and extensive 1,500-acre lawns. It was built in 1565 and costs taxpayers almost £1 million a year to maintain.

It was donated to the nation in 1917 by Lord and Lady Lee of Fareham as a “place of rest and recreation for prime ministers” because those coming to power increasingly lacked their own country estates.

Mr and Mrs Johnson got married in secret last May in a low-key ceremony at Westminster Cathedral in front of a small group of close friends and family.

The couple were married by Fr Daniel Humphreys, who had baptised Wilfred in a small ceremony in the cathedral's Lady Chapel last year.

At the time, up to 30 people were allowed to attend weddings under the Covid rules that were in place.

The ceremony came days after the couple were reported to have sent “save the dates” to family and friends for a celebration of their marriage on July 30, 2022.

Lord Bamford, a keen Brexiteer, is close with Mr Johnson and backed his Conservative leadership bid in 2019.

Mr Johnson was given £10,000 by JCB just three days before he delivered a major Brexit-themed speech in January 2019, which was widely seen as his pitch for leadership.