Cotswolds in lockdown as JD Vance's holiday begins: Vice President arrives in tiny hamlet amid huge security operation after enjoying private tour of Hampton Court Palace
Police have closed off all roads and footpaths leading to the hamlet of Dean, where Donald Trump 's deputy is staying with his family at Dean Manor, an 18th-century country house.
Officers are now checking the identity of residents trying to pass through the security cordon, watched on by Secret Service agents in a dressed-down uniform of cream chinos and pale blue-shirts.
Vehicles are being searched with sniffer dogs and walkers told to go elsewhere while Mr Vance, his wife, Usha, and children - Ewan, eight, Vivek, five, and Mirabel, three - are in residence.
The politician is in the Cotswolds today for a relaxed break with his family after arriving from London, where he enjoyed a private tour of Hampton Court yesterday.
Mr Vance rocked up at Henry VIII's former residents in a 19-vehicle motorcade for a morning tour - forcing the site to delay its public opening to 12pm.
He now appears to have finished his official business after making a brief trip on Friday to Chevening House, the official residence of British foreign secretary David Lammy.
Mr Lammy, 53, and Mr Vance, 41, are understood to have forged an unlikely friendship and spent time with each other's families, alongside engaging in a short, bilateral meeting.
The massive security operation surrounding Dean Manor has prompted its owner to apologise to neighbours for the disruption.
Pippa Hornby, who bought the 18th-century Cotswolds home with her husband Johnny in 2017, told villagers that she was 'so sorry for the circus' set to take place across the coming days, The Telegraph reported.
The manor house was built in 1702 for the MP Thomas Rowney and is close to Jeremy Clarkson's Diddly Squat farm.
Set across six acres of land, the sprawling property is home to two cellars, a tennis court, rose garden, basement gym and Georgian orangery.
One local previously told the Daily Mail: 'There has been a lot of activity at the manor these last few days. It is hard to miss. Security absolutely everywhere.
'Men dressed identically surrounding the property with ear pieces and dark glasses.
'Blacked out Mercedes vans shuttling people around every few minutes. We have never seen anything like it. It's like something out of a film.
'The word is that it is indeed for JD Vance. So we shall see.'
There has been intense activity around the manor house for days.
On the main gateway of the property, leading to a sweeping 'in and out' driveway, two suited security guards have been checking the security clearance of those coming and going in a stream of blacked out cars and Mercedes limousine vans.
One local said a large antennae placed behind the house, perhaps a telecoms tower, is 'humming constantly'.
But another seemed almost entirely unaware of the upcoming visit at all.
When asked about Mr Vance, he remarked: 'Who? I'm unsure who that is.'
As the Daily Mail reported last month, the tiny village of Charlbury - which is near Dean - is home to the UK's best pub, The Bull.
Earlier this year, Charlbury was named as one of the best places to live in Oxfordshire, alongside the towns of Henley and Burford.
Meanwhile, the wider Cotswolds have become the latest hot ticket with Americans seeking what they see as a traditional cosy English escape.
Ellen DeGeneres, the US talk show host, is reportedly deliberately fleeing her home in the area ahead of Vance's arrival after leaving the US following Trump's election.
Fashion journalist Plum Sykes told BBC Radio 4 last month of the cosy English haven: 'It's just so hot and so trendy and so fashionable... it's an incredibly beautiful area because it's being protected, almost like a national park that you can live in.
'Americans cannot get over the charm but since Covid it's been refashioned with all the pleasures of London, Paris and New York.
Despite their differences in political opinions, Mr Lammy previously declared that he considers Mr Vance to be a 'friend' and someone who 'completely relates' to him.
The pair are said to have bonded over their common backgrounds - both being raised without their fathers - and their religion: Mr Lammy is an Anglican; Mr Vance a baptised Catholic since 2019.
Ahead of Mr Vance's visit, which a source claimed would include a 'short bilateral meeting', the Foreign Office said ministerial engagements would be announced in 'the usual way'.
In March, the Foreign Secretary and his wife Nicola Green visited the vice-president's official residence in Washington, the Naval Observatory, for a private meeting without officials.
The Foreign Secretary told The Guardian earlier this month he and Mr Vance spent a 'wonderful hour and a half' together over drinks at the US Embassy in Italy during the inauguration of the new Pope, Leo XIV.
It comes shortly after President Trump visited Scotland, spending time teeing off at his Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire in between holding diplomatic talks with the Prime Minister.
Announcing plans for a protest, the Stop Trump Coalition alliance said: 'We are meeting Trump with protests in Aberdeen and Edinburgh this month, and then in London and Windsor in September.
'JD Vance is every bit as unwelcome in the UK as Donald Trump. We remember how Vance cut short his ski trip in Vermont because he was so enraged by the sight of a few protesters.
'We are sure that, even in the Cotswolds, he will find the resistance waiting.'
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