Liz Truss is disputing a bill she has been asked to pay relating to a country house which she had use of as foreign secretary.
The bill is reportedly for £12,000 but the former prime minister’s spokesman claims the actual figure is lower.
The invoice, first reported in The Mail on Sunday, covers the period in August 2022 when she used Chevening House in Kent, during the time she was running to be Conservative leader before being elected to No 10 the following month.
Ms Truss claims most of the invoice relates to using the grace-and-favour home for government business and she maintains she should not be liable for the majority of it.
Image: The then foreign secretary met three Baltic foreign ministers at Chevening House in October 2021
The official business included meetings with cabinet secretary Simon Case when they were planning a transition to a Truss government.
If she did pay, there would have been a breach of civil service protocol because civil servants are not allowed to accept hospitality from a political candidate, her team argues.
Ms Truss has asked for this part to be billed separately.
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She will pay for personal costs relating to guests. The bill reportedly includes missing items including bathrobes, which she is happy to replace.
A spokesman for Ms Truss said: “Liz always paid for the costs of her personal guests at Chevening.
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“The latest invoice contains a mixture of costs for her personally and costs for official government business with civil servants including Simon Case and senior officials from other departments who met at Chevening during the transition preparations.
“The latter constitutes the majority of the bill. It would be inappropriate for her to pay the costs for officials as it would have breached the civil service code for civil servants to accept hospitality during the leadership campaign.
“She has therefore asked for this to be billed separately.”
Chevening House, which has 115 rooms and is Grade 1 listed, was left to the nation by the 7th Earl Stanhope after he died in 1967.
Since then, the prime minister of the day has decided who uses it, with that person usually being the foreign secretary.
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3:46
Liz Truss’s rise and fall
Ms Truss was the shortest-serving prime minister in UK history, resigning last October, just 44 days after taking over from Boris Johnson.
It came after her tax-cutting mini-budget spooked financial markets.
She has said she was never given a “realistic chance” to implement her radical tax-cutting agenda and blamed what she called a “powerful economic establishment” for removing her from Downing Street.
Rory McIlroy has completed a career Grand Slam in golf with his win at the US Masters tournament.
The Masters was the last major tournament left for McIlroy to complete the modern golf Grand Slam – a feat only five others have managed before him.
McIlroy, who was making his 11th attempt at completing the Grand Slam, faced off Justin Rose in a sudden-death playoff to decide the Masters champion, after they finished tied on 11 under at the end of regulation on Sunday.
Image: McIlroy reacts as he wins. Pic: AP
Image: McIlroy reacts after winning against Justin Rose at the Masters. Pic: AP
“It’s my 17th time here and I started to wonder if it would ever be my time,” McIlroy said just before slipping on the Green Jacket during the presentation ceremony.
“I’m just absolutely honoured and thrilled and just so proud to be able to call myself a Masters champion.”
McIlroy had missed his six-foot putt for par, a bogey which dropped him back to 11 under, where he joined Rose – leading to a dramatic play-off between the two.
Only five other golfers have been able to complete a career Grand Slam, including Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen.
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Image: Pic: AP
McIlroy is a two-time winner of the PGA Championship, claiming the prize in 2012 and 2014.
The 35-year-old also won his first major title, the US Open, in 2011, and won The Open Championship in 2014.
How did McIlroy get to the victory?
McIlroy recovered from losing his overnight two-shot advantage with an opening-hole double bogey to initially take control at Augusta National, only to blow a four-shot lead over his closing six holes.
The world No 2 bogeyed the last to close a one-over 73 and slip back to 11 under alongside Rose, who overturned a seven-stroke deficit and posted a stunning final-round 66 to force a play-off.
The players returned to the 18th for the play-off, where McIlroy made amends for his 72nd-hole blunder by firing a stunning approach to within three feet of the pin and making the birdie putt required for a life-changing win.
Last-minute efforts to keep British Steel operating are to be carried out today, as the plant races to secure a supply of raw materials.
The Department for Business and Trade said officials are working to secure supplies of materials, including coking coal, to keep British Steel operational, as well as to ensure all staff will be paid.
It added that setting up new supply chains was “crucial” as a fall in blast furnace temperature could risk “irreparable damage to the site, with the steel setting and scarring the machinery”.
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Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said in a statement that “when I said steelmaking has a future in the UK, I meant it”.
“Steel is vital for our national security and our ambitious plans for the housing, infrastructure and manufacturing sectors in the UK,” he added.
“We will set out a long-term plan to co-invest with the private sector to ensure steel in the UK has a bright and sustainable future.”
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Image: Unions said Jingye decided to cancel orders of key materials for the steelworks
Earlier this month, unions said the steelwork’s owner, Chinese company Jingye, decided to cancel future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running.
It meant the Scunthorpe plant had been on course to close down by May, bit it sparked urgent calls for government intervention.
Emergency legislation was passed on Saturday bringing the steelworks into effective government control, and officials were on site as soon as the new legislation came into force.
However, the business secretary has warned that does not mean the plant is guaranteed to survive.
Appearing on Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Mr Reynolds also said he would not bring a Chinese company into the “sensitive” steel sector again.
“I don’t know… the Boris Johnson government when they did this, what exactly the situation was,” he added. “But I think it’s a sensitive area.”
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1:27
‘I wouldn’t bring a Chinese company into our steel sector’
Jingye stepped in with a deal to buy British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant out of insolvency in 2020, when Mr Johnson was prime minister.
The minister added that while The Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill stops short of the full nationalisation of British Steel, “to be frank, as I said to parliament yesterday, it is perhaps at this stage the likely option”.
The Conservatives accused the government of acting “too late” and implementing a “botched nationalisation” after ignoring warnings about the risk to the steelworks.