The UK government will host U.S. Vice President JD Vance at a historic mansion for the start of his summer holiday trip to his ancestral British isles this weekend.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance, his wish Usha, and their three children will commence their summer holiday to the United Kingdom. While the majority of the trip is planned to revolve around a privately rented house in the fashionable Cotswolds district in England’s rural South West, it will begin with the family being hosted by the UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
While Lammy was once known for his intemperate remarks about President Donald Trump, having called him a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”, the left-wing politician has been part of the UK government’s recent charm offensive to paper over the past and emerge as friends of Trump.
Chevening’s famous hall, the walls of which are covered in the swords, muskets, and pistols of a disbanded regiment that form trophies. Pictured at the time of British Foreign Secretary David Lammy hosting his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyan Jaishankar, ahead of a bilateral meeting on March 5, 2025. (Photo by Alastair Grant / POOL / AFP)
As Foreign Secretary, Lammy has the ‘grace and favour’ country house Chevening, a major 17th century house in Kent. Under the terms of it being made a gift to the nation by a childless Earl, the government can nominate any government minister to have use of the house during their time in office, but by convention it has generally fallen to the Foreign Secretary. The Prime Minister has his own official country home, Chequers.
If the government of the day finds it does not need the house, it can also be granted to a member of the Royal Family and then in order, the Canadian High Commissioner, the U.S. Ambassador, and then the national trust, a charity that opens historic buildings to the public.
Like President Trump, who had a working holiday to the UK last month, JD Vance has strong British heritage, and has previously described himself as “a Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart”. The Guardian noted in their report when it emerged the Vance family had rented a substantial property in the Cotswolds for their August holiday that the area had become “an increasingly popular choice for wealthy tourists”.
The Cotswolds was chosen by Ellen DeGeneres for her self-imposed exile from the United States last year.
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