GORDON Brown will break with the tradition of recent prime ministers by spending Christmas Day at his North Queensferry family home near Edinburgh rather than at Chequers.
Tony Blair and his Conservative predecessors, Sir John Major and Baroness Thatcher, had their festive turkey at the prime minister's official country residence in Buckinghamshire.
However, Mr Brown, his wife Sarah and their two young sons will
celebrate in Scotland before going to Chequers for New Year, it emerged last night.
Senior Whitehall sources confirmed that Mr Brown had decided to have Christmas at his family home in Scotland.
However, they said that appropriate security arrangements had been put in place to allow the Prime Minister to continue his job from North Queensferry.
These measures are understood to include having a senior Downing Street official, a secretary and an IT expert working from a "mini No10" set up in a backroom of the house during the day. They will stay in a local bed and breakfast.
Plans have been made for Mr Brown to take charge of any crisis that may unexpectedly occur from a local police station.
Mr Blair used to go up to his Sedgefield constituency home, "Myrobella", before Christmas, but he headed to Chequers for the day itself.
He then used to fly abroad for either official business or for a holiday after Boxing Day. Most prime ministers of recent times – including Lady Thatcher and Sir John – have usually spent Christmas Day at Chequers.
Mr Brown's decision is seen at Westminster as a sign that he wished his family life to remain as normal as possible, given his job as Prime Minister.
The Blair and Major families, in particular, grew very fond of Chequers during their time in No10 Downing Street.
The full article contains 298 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
