Rachel Reeves’ Downing Street flat needed £20,000 revamp after the original furniture went missing

Taxpayers spent nearly £20,000 furnishing Rachel Reeves’ Downing Street flat after original government furniture went missing – and no-one in Whitehall knows where it went.

The flat was empty when Chancellor Ms Reeves moved out after the election in July 2024, and four government departments were unable to say where the original tables, chairs and sofas had gone.

The Cabinet Office, the Treasury, the State Property Agency and the Downing Street Facilities Team failed to explain the reason for the missing items or say whether they were in storage or used elsewhere.

The £19,759.61 spend, revealed following a written Parliamentary question this week, included £5,000 on nine tables, £3,450 on two sofas, £850 on a TV unit, £695 on a chair and £475 on a dresser.

Taxpayers also covered a £750 set-up and handling fee and a £300 delivery fee.

Rishi Sunak and wife Akshata paid for a major renovation of No 10 when he became Chancellor in 2020, splashing out on velvet sofas and sumptuous curtains and getting rid of old furniture.

After stepping down as Chancellor in July 2022, Sunaks returned to 10th place in October when he became prime minister.

But when he lost the election in 2024, they took their furniture with them, leaving the next resident, Ms. Reeves, with an empty flat.

Four government departments were asked to account for lost items; but none could say whether the original furniture was in storage, shipped to another government residence, or destroyed.

TaxPayers’ Alliance chief executive John O’Connell said: ‘The prospect of usable furniture being left in storage for years makes the entire Reeves furniture business even more wasteful.’

The parliamentary question was tabled by Cabinet Office Shadow Minister Mike Wood.

Finance Minister Dan Tomlinson said the items purchased were ‘permanently retained by the government’ and the spend was ‘funded from HMT budgets for 2024-25’.

Chancellors and prime ministers can spend up to £30,000 of public funds on furnishing flats in Downing Street.

When Boris Johnson moved in as Prime Minister in 2019, he was investigated after a Conservative Party donor paid £112,000 to have his flat redesigned, overseen by designer Lulu Lytle.

He had to pay the money from his own funds.