Liz Truss contests £12,000 bill over use of Chevening country house

Liz Truss is contesting a authorities measure relating to her usage of the grace-and-favour state location she had entree to arsenic overseas secretary.

The erstwhile Conservative premier curate has been asked to ft a measure of astir £12,000 for costs incurred astatine Chevening House successful Kent.

The measure covers the play past twelvemonth erstwhile Ms Truss was moving to beryllium the person of the Conservative Party.

The authorities has been approached for comment.

Ms Truss was overseas caput erstwhile she utilized Chevening House successful August 2022 arsenic she prepared for powerfulness during the Tory enactment contest.

Conservative Party members elected Ms Truss to beryllium person successful September past year, but her authorities collapsed wrong 45 days aft her tax-cutting mini-budget spooked fiscal markets.

Chevening, a Grade I-listed, 115-room state house, was near to the federation by 7th Earl Stanhope pursuing his decease successful 1967.

Since then, it has been up to the premier curate to determine who uses Chevening, with the overseas caput the accustomed beneficiary.

The BBC has been told that Ms Truss's Chevening measure - which was first reported by the Mail connected Sunday newspaper - covers missing items, including bathrobes, which she is blessed to wage to replace.

But the erstwhile premier curate is maintaining that the bulk of the invoice relates to utilizing Chevening for authorities business, meaning she should not beryllium liable for astir of the bill.

Those adjacent to Ms Truss person stressed that she volition relationship for each idiosyncratic expenses incurred.

The ministerial rulebook states "where ministers big enactment oregon idiosyncratic events successful [official] residences it should beryllium astatine their ain oregon enactment disbursal with nary outgo falling to the nationalist purse".

A spokesperson for Ms Truss said: "Liz ever paid for the costs of her idiosyncratic guests astatine Chevening.

"The latest invoice contains a substance of costs for her personally and costs for authoritative authorities concern with civilian servants including [Cabinet Secretary] Simon Case and elder officials from different departments who met astatine Chevening during the modulation preparations.

"The second constitutes the bulk of the bill. It would beryllium inappropriate for her to wage the costs for officials arsenic it would person breached the Civil Service Code for civilian servants to judge hospitality during the enactment campaign. She has truthful asked for this to beryllium billed separately."

Ms Truss is inactive an MP and has spent immoderate of her clip giving speeches astir her economical doctrine since she near office, with the latest registry of interests for MPs showing she received £65,000 for 1 speaking engagement.

Ms Truss - the shortest-serving premier curate successful past - claimed her authorities was partially brought down by what she called "the left-wing economical establishment".

She has ruled retired moving arsenic premier curate again, but is readying to basal again arsenic the MP for South West Norfolk astatine the adjacent wide election.