“The apartment is very private, but you live above the shop. All the security arrangements make it incredibly difficult for people to come and go,” he said. “You live in a fortress. It is not normal.” Whether Liz Truss’s family move to No 10 or, more likely, 11 Downing Street – where every prime minister since 1997 has chosen to live because of its larger, open-plan modern stainless steel kitchen – family friends say that her two daughters, 16-year-old Florence and 13-year-old Liberty, are undaunted. The girls are apparently “very excited” at the prospect of living in one of the world’s most famous addresses, where the back door leads straight onto 23-hectare St James’s Park, already planning to sleep over with their friends in Downing Street and in Checkers. with the huge lawn and the heated pool. It’s rare for prime ministers not to come to Downing Street with children: David Cameron was the first prime minister to take paternity leave while in office, but Boris Johnson was the fourth prime minister to welcome a baby to Downing Street when he and Kerry . they had their son, Wilfred, in April 2021. Only once this century, when Theresa May was in No 10, has the UK had a prime minister without school-age children – but even those who entered No 10 with children in their 20s, such as Harold Macmillan, have packed the house with children’s parties to set the mood – especially at weekends when the atmosphere in the sprawling 100-room space is said to turn gloomy. Outgoing British Prime Minister David Cameron leaves after speaking outside Downing Street with his family in July 2016. Photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images But exactly how – and indeed if – the new Prime Minister will balance work and family in Downing Street remains to be seen. Some prime ministers have made little distinction between private and personal life: David Cameron said that, for his children, “there was no distinction between the spaces of the home and the workplace, it was all theirs. It was a huge maze to explore.” Visitors to the Cameron Downing Street drawing room were expected to balance children on their knees. “I can remember at least one time when Cameron’s nursery broke up and Florence had to join our 8.30am meeting. She sat on my lap, slowly inhaling a mint,” said Kate Fall, Florence’s godmother and Cameron’s deputy chief of staff when he was prime minister. Blair’s son Leo stayed at home in No 10, according to former Times editor Peter Stothard in his book 30 Days, a diary of his time following the then prime minister before the Iraq war. Recalling a War Cabinet meeting he attended, Stothard wrote that “in the half-darkness, the rooms look like the grounds of a hastily ended children’s party. The Thomas the Tank Engine train set overflows its box. At the bottom of the stairs, as if to trick the Prime Minister into tripping, is a baby-sized drum with BAND in large letters on the bass.’ Other prime ministers and their spouses, however, maintained a clear distinction between home and work life: Mary Wilson, for example, installed a bell in her second-floor rooms to ensure no civil servant intruded. Norma Major took this to a further extreme and lived apart from the young children at Huntington for a time when her husband, John, was Prime Minister. Friends of Truss wonder if the new incumbents might combine the two approaches: “She won’t be able to resist” moving to Downing Street rather than staying in Greenwich, one friend predicted. Tony Blair poses with his wife Cherie and children (left to right) Nicky, Kathryn and Euan, before settling into No 10 after a landslide victory in 1997. Photo: Rebecca Naden/PA But, they added, Truss’ husband Hugh O’Leary, an accountant, could only be there “in thought”. Quieter and more reflective than his wife, O’Leary is said to prefer to keep a low profile, continuing family life during the week while his wife is busy at Westminster. “It won’t be Dennis [Thatcher],” said someone who has known Truss since her Greenwich days. Furthermore, O’Leary currently works mostly from home and, as the friend suggests, is unlikely to want to do so from Downing Street. Instead, they predict, he could return daily to their south-east London home or find an office elsewhere, perhaps closer to Westminster. On Thursday nights, though, friends say the work/life lines can blur: Thursday night at the Truss house is currently pizza night, with the family gathering in their kitchen. But Florence and Liberty can perhaps look forward to more than sleep. While Carol Thatcher reportedly hid in a cupboard when visitors visited her mother, Margaret Thatcher, for wearing jeans, other teenagers have more than blossomed: Ewan Blair was 13 when he moved into Downing Street. Now 38, he’s a tech entrepreneur on his way to becoming a billionaire. And if Truss’s tenure at the helm is short, the girls can always emulate another Downing Street child: Florence Cameron who, when it came time to leave in 2016, tried to hang on to the bars. “We’re supposed to make a decent exit,” her mother explained. “But I don’t want to go,” cried the six-year-old.
