Gordon Brown’s dinner guests revealed

The release of the Prime Minister’s first annual dining list today reveals that, unlike his predecessor Tony Blair, Gordon Brown does not enjoy the company of glitzy celebs. Whereas Blair relished the company of radio disc jockeys, game show presenters and pop singers (in truth, he could have been any of these had he not set his sights on Number 10), Brown prefers to mix with wealthy businessmen and highbrow figures from the arts.

Last year’s guest list for Chequers, the PM’s weekend retreat in Buckinghamshire, included the naturalist Sir David Attenborough, the designer and restaurateur Sir Terence Conran, the architects Zaha Hadid, Lord Foster and Lord Rogers and the playwright Sir Tom Stoppard. Other guests included the surgeon Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub, the former head of the US Federal Reserve Sir Alan Greenspan, the historian Lady Antonia Fraser and Tony Hall, chief executive of the Royal Opera House.

Brown’s list also features wealthy business leaders. He has dined with the Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy, the financier Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, the entrepreneur Sir James Dyson, and the multi-millionaire private equity boss Damon Buffini. Blair's dinner party guests at Chequers included the singer Charlotte Church, as well as such TV personalities as Richard Madeley, Lorraine Kelly and Vernon Kay.