Housing secretary under pressure over ‘second home’ trip

The housing secretary Robert Jenrick has come under sustained political pressure over the weekend for travelling more than 100 miles to stay with his family in Herefordshire despite lockdown rules that he has himself been promoting.

The government has stood by the cabinet minister so far, with a spokesman telling papers over the weekend that Jenrick had not broken social distancing rules, as the Herefordshire country house is his family home.

However, Jenrick also owns a property in London and rents a house in his Newark constituency, both of which are listed on his website as his principle properties. The Telegraph reported that his primary residence was a “London townhouse”, with his children attending school in the capital, and quoted neighbours of his Herefordshire property as describing his claim it was his family home as “total codswallop”.

Jenrick was also criticised after having been found to have driven to visit his elderly parents in the neighbouring county of Shropshire, despite the government ban on all but the most essential trips.

Jenrick said he was visiting them in order to drop off “essential supplies”, but neighbours told the Guardian that they had already been ensuring the couple had enough to eat and drink.

On March 22 the government published guidance making clear that “Essential travel does not include visits to second homes, whether for isolation purposes or holidays[…] People must remain in their primary residence.”

On April 5 Scotland’s chief medical officer Dr Catherine Calderwood was forced to resign after having been found to have twice visited her second home.

When challenged on the journeys, Jenrick said his Herefordshire house was “the place I, my wife and my young children consider to be our family home”, adding that “Once I was able to work from home, it was right that I went home to do so.”

But a neighbour told the Telegraph that “The family hardly use the place. No way is it their main home. They’re never really there. I know he’s been doing up the place for years, and I think it’s his plan to retire there eventually.

“But to say it’s the family home is just codswallop, I’m afraid.”

Jenrick also tweeted last week: ‘For clarity - my parents asked me to deliver some essentials - including medicines. They are both self-isolating due to age and my father’s medical condition and I respected social distancing rules’.

Labour’s new shadow communities secretary Steve Reed called on Jenrick to “consider his position”, while the SNP’s leader in Westminster Ian Blackford said “a price has to be paid” for disobeying social distancing guidance.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: “Like everybody else, ministers have been told to work from home wherever possible and not make unnecessary journeys.

“As part of the coronavirus response there will be occasions when ministers have no option but to work from Whitehall. In the event this is required, and the rest of their household is living elsewhere, it’s not an unnecessary journey for them to travel to rejoin their family.”