Retired ambassador’s court bid to evict friend from £20m stately home

David Gladstone claims lawyer Leigh White is squatting in his £15million mansion in Buckinghamshire (Image: Wikipedia)David Gladstone – former High Commissioner to Sri Lanka – claims lawyer Leigh White is squatting in his £15million Grade-I listed mansion in Buckinghamshire and refusing to leave.The formerly close family friend, who moved in during 2017, insists she has a right to stay at Wotton House, near Aylesbury, because she was promised it would be hers on his death as ‘successor and heiress’ to his £20million estate.But the 87-year-old – who is in Cumbria after moving north to shield from Covid – is now suing to force her out.He says he is ‘desperate’ to spend his final years in the family pile, which dates from 1714.However, Ms White, 55, is countersuing at the High Court and refusing to shift.The court heard that Wotton House boasts extensive grounds modelled by the celebrated landscape architect Capability Brown who laid down pleasure gardens and two lakes.The former coach house on the estate was purchased in 2008 by Tony and Cherie Blair.During a two-week trial, Mr Justice Trower heard that David and his first wife April Gladstone had met Ms White 30 years ago and she became part of their inner circle, managing Wotton as Mr Gladstone got older.Ms White claims from 2007 onwards, Mr Gladstone – who she says treated her as a ‘surrogate daughter’ – repeatedly assured her that Wotton House and two other properties making up his £20million estate would go to her when he died.It was only after he moved north to Cumbria to shield with his new wife, Mary, during the first lockdown that the relationship and Mr Gladstone’s inheritance plans changed unexpectedly, she claimed.He demanded she move out so he could move in with Mary and announced he had written a new will, placing his estate into a discretionary trust for the benefit of his family – and leaving nothing and no role for Mrs White.Her barrister, Penelope Reed KC said: ‘She then spent her time assisting him with the running of Wotton, including moving into the property and caring for and supporting him and his family.’Having made those promises to Leigh over a long period of time and she having arranged her life on the basis of them, it is very clearly unconscionable for David to resile from them.’But for Mr Gladstone, Tracey Angus KC denied that there had ever been a promise that Ms White would inherit Wotton herself and, as a lawyer, she must have understood that he intended for it to go into trust ‘for many generations.’Ms White had never been the main beneficiary in any of Mr Gladstone’s wills, merely a trustee and one of several potential beneficiaries of a discretionary trust into which Wotton would go to safeguard its future, the court was told.But faced with an increasing deadlock after his move to Cumbria, he had decided to cut her out altogether, removing her as trustee or beneficiary of the estate trust and asking her to get out.The judge is expected to deliver a ruling on the case at a later date.