The British Government Cabinet Office has claimed from the former “premier” Liz Truss an invoice of 12,000 pounds (13,500 euros) for her personal expenses and for the “disappearance” of bathrobes and rubber slippers from the Chevening mansion, the residence official that he used as head of the Foreign Office and that he converted in the summer of 2022 into the headquarters for the contest for the leadership of the “tories”.
The revelations of ‘The Mail on Sunday’, together with the information from ‘The Guardian’ about the supposed discovery of traces of cocaine by the staff of the residence, have opened something like a personal “Partygate” of Liz Truss, months later of his resignation 49 days after his arrival at Downing Street due to the impact of his economic measures.
Truss, criticized in her day for spending more than two million euros on her trips as Foreign Secretary, has decided to contest the latest bill, alleging that part of the expenses correspond to the official use of Chevening. The former “premier” has claimed “a tighter receipt”, although she seems willing to replace the cost of the bathrobes.
News has brought to light how Truss came to use the official 115-room Kent mansion to pursue his political ambitions against his then-rival Rishi Sunak. Most of the belongings that are claimed “disappeared” in fact after several parties in the middle of August and with his campaign collaborators for the Tory leadership after the resignation of Boris Johnson.
“Truss used Chevening as a kind of replica of Downing Street with his inner circle and organized parties (washed down with wine) until late at night,” sources close to the government told The Mail on Sunday. “The mansion staff assures that it was in the period when bathrobes and even rubber slippers were missing.”
“The invoice therefore corresponds to what were basically a series of summer parties, hence the objection that they have to be covered from the public treasury,” added the same source, without needing to recall Truss’ propensity to spend in his stage in the Foreign Office.
A Truss spokesman stressed that the former “premier” “always paid the cost of her personal guests in Chevening” and assured that the bill included expenses derived from meetings with her transition team and with the then Cabinet minister, Simon Coveney.
The former “premier” has returned to the fore in any case against her will, after her discreet return to politics as a deputy, determined to run again in the 2024 elections for the South West Norfolk seat and convinced that she was a victim of “a concerted international effort against his plan for growth” and tax cuts. Despite her fall from grace, Truss charges the equivalent of 75,000 euros per speech.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
