Liz Truss cost taxpayers £370,000 with aborted Bali trip
Liz Truss’s decision to abort a visit to Bali and fly home to run for prime minister cost taxpayers more than £370,000 according to data that reveals PM’s lavish Chequers country home costs almost £1MILLION a year to maintain
- Cabinet Office paid £980k to trust running Buckinghamshire estate in 2021-22
- That was up from £916,000 the previous year and from £690,000 in 2016
- Mr Johnson fond of using the 1,000-acre estate to escape Westminster
An official visit to Bali by Liz Truss that she cut short so she could return to Britain to run for prime minister cost the taxpayer more than a third of a million pounds, official figures revealed today.
Transparency data showed that her final abortive trip as foreign secretary to a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Indonesia in July cost the taxpayer £369,000 for flights alone.
Mr Truss, who was accompanied by a team of 13 officials, turned around and headed home from the holiday island almost immediately after the news came through that Boris Johnson was resigning.
She was successful in replacing him but then faced the ignominy of becoming the UK’s shortest-serving prime minister, with just 49 days in No10.
The data also revealed the cost of maintaining Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country retreat, has soared to almost £1million.
The Cabinet Office paid out £980,000 to the trust that runs the Buckinghamshire stately home in the 2021-22 financial year, when Boris Johnson was prime minister, the department’s annual report revealed.
Mr Johnson was very fond of using the 1,000-acre estate between Prince’s Risborough and Wendover to escape the glare of Westminster attention.
He spent many weekends there with Carrie and their children and entertained world leaders including Germany’s Angela Merkel.
Liz Truss was given a luxury hat while in office – and kept it after leaving. She received the gift in September, shortly before the Queen’s funeral, but a spokesman said it was not the headpiece she wore to the Westminster Abbey service (above).
The data also showed that her final abortive trip as foreign secretary to a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in Bali, Indonesia, in July cost the taxpayer £369,000 for flights alone.
That was up from £916,000 the previous year and a large increase on the £690,000 paid out when David Cameron was prime minister.
Mr Johnson was very fond of using the 1,000-acre estate between Prince’s Risborough and Wendover to escape the glare of Westminster attention.
He spent many weekends there with Carrie and their children and entertained world leaders including Germany’s Angela Merkel.
The figures were included in a raft of transparency data made public today. Among them were papers on No10 gifts that revealed that Ms Truss was given a luxury hat while in office – and kept it after leaving.
During her brief term in office she did not manage to undertake any taxpayer-funded entertaining at Chequers – the prime minister’s official country residence – according to her declaration. Though she did hold a private leaving party there.
Chequers, bequeathed to the nation in 1917 by Lord and Lady Lee of Fareham, is part-funded with a grant from the Cabinet Office.
Lord and Lady Lee wanted the 16th century, 1,000-acre estate to be a ‘place of rest and recreation for Prime Ministers’ to help them cope with the pressures of government.
The former prime minister chose to purchase the hat donated by Amanda Denton Millinery in line with rules for ministers for gifts worth £140 or more received in their official capacity.
The company, based in Hungerford, Berkshire, specialises in ‘occasion ladies hats’ – described as ‘perfect’ for Cheltenham or Royal Ascot – according to its website.
She received the gift in September, shortly before the Queen’s funeral, but a spokesman said it was not the headpiece she wore to the Westminster Abbey service.
Ms Truss decided not to purchase jewellery she was given by the first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, which was retained by the department.
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