Rachel Reeves in the dark over whether she will enjoy sole use of 18th Century Buckinghamshire estate previously given to former Chancellors including Rishi Sunak and Ken Clarke

Removal teams have been hard at work as Rachel Reeves takes up residence in the flat above No 10 – occupied until the election by Rishi Sunak.

However, there is still no word on whether she will enjoy sole use of Dorneywood, the magnificent 18th Century house in Buckinghamshire traditionally given to the Chancellor by the Prime Minister.

Ms Reeves moved into the two-bedroom flat with husband Nicholas Joicey, a former speechwriter for Gordon Brown, and their son and daughter on Friday evening; Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has chosen to take the larger, four-bedroom flat above Ms Reeves’ office in No 11 – as did his predecessors Tony Blair, Boris Johnson and David Cameron.

Mr Sunak, along with his wife and two daughters, had stayed in the No 10 flat when he was Chancellor to Boris Johnson and decided to stay there on becoming PM because he had been ‘very happy there ’.

Mr Blair, his wife Cherie and their family were the first to make the switch to No 10, swapping home with the then-unmarried Gordon Brown. 

Sir Keir’s two children with wife Victoria were left ‘really sweet and thoughtful’ notes written by the three children of former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt when they entered the apartment.

However, the thorny issue of whether Ms Reeves shares Dorneywood with Angela Rayner is still being decided, sources said, adding that it was ‘one for [chief of staff] Sue Gray to resolve’.

Ms Rayner’s predecessor as Labour Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, was allowed to use Dorneywood.

Alternatively, Ms Rayner could share Chevening, the 115-room mansion in Kent which traditionally goes to the Foreign Secretary, with David Lammy, the occupier of that post: when Nick Clegg was Deputy PM he shared Chevening with Foreign Secretary William Hague.

And when Liz Truss was Mr Johnson’s Foreign Secretary she had to share it with her predecessor Dominic Raab.

Sir Keir will enjoy the traditional prime ministerial use of Grade I-listed Chequers in Buckinghamshire.