Brown reveals country home guests

Businessman and TV star Sir Alan Sugar came to see the PM

Tony Blair was well known for inviting showbusiness figures to his country home Chequers - and it seems Gordon Brown is carrying on the tradition.

Film legend Lord Attenborough, Beatles producer Sir George Martin and Four Weddings and a Funeral writer Richard Curtis have visited in the past year.

Sir Alan Sugar - star of BBC One's The Apprentice - and entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson also attended.

The Duke of York has been a guest too, Downing Street has revealed.

Newspaper bosses

Downing Street has provided a list of people who received official hospitality at Chequers, in Buckinghamshire, since Mr Brown became prime minister in June last year.

Several cabinet ministers either came for dinner or spent the night there - the breakdown does not give exact details of how long guests stayed for.

From the media world, Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre, Sun editor Rebekah Wade and former Mirror boss Piers Morgan - now a TV talent show judge - visited.

Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard and novelist and historian Lady Antonia Fraser were entertained.

Retailers on the list include Sir Terence Conran - founder of the Habitat shop chain - Marks and Spencer boss Sir Stuart Rose and Tesco chief Sir Terry Leahy.

While many of Mr Brown's guests are household names, there is not quite the celebrity focus of the list given for Mr Blair last year.

That included the likes of singer Charlotte Church, DJ Chris Evans, TV presenter Adrian Chiles and the then England football coach Steve McLaren.

Among the more famous guests invited by Mr Brown were:

POLITICS

Ed Balls, Hilary Benn, Hazel Blears, Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Alistair Darling, Lord Darzi, John Denham, John Hutton, Alan Johnson, Lord Jones, Ruth Kelly, Lord and Lady Kinnock, James Purnell, Jacqui Smith, Angela Smith, Jack Straw, Lord West, Michael Wills, Stephen Carter

ROYALTY

Duke of York

BUSINESS

Private equity chief Damon Buffini, Sir Richard Branson, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, James Dyson, former GlaxoSmithKline chief executive Jean Pierre Garnier, J Sainsbury chair Sir Philip Hampton, CBI boss Sir Richard Lambert, Lord Sainsbury, Vodafone chief executive Arun Sarin, executive chairman of Marks and Spencer Sir Stuart Rose, Alan Greenspan

SHOWBUSINESS

Sir Alan Sugar, child psychologist Tanya Byron, screenwriter Richard Curtis, presenter Emma Freud, chief executive of Royal Opera House Tony Hall, Beatles producer Sir George Martin, playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, Lord Attenborough

NEWSPAPERS

Mail editor-in-chief Paul Dacre, News International executive Les Hinton, former Independent editor Simon Kelner, chair of Guardian Media Group Paul Myners, Mail proprietor Lord Rothermere, Pearson chief executive Marjorie Scardino, Sun editor Rebekah Wade, columnist Celia Walden, Mirror editor Richard Wallace,

AUTHORS

Kathy Lette, Richard North Patterson

OTHER CELEBRITIES

Designer Sir Terence Conran, architect Lord Foster, historian Lady Antonia Fraser, former Mirror editor, writer and TV judge Piers Morgan, architect Lord Rogers