Liz Truss is disputing part of a £12,000 bill sent to her by the Cabinet Office relating to her use of the grace-and-favour Chevening house while she was foreign secretary.
The bill mostly covered hospitality but also included missing items, such as some bathrobes, and dates back to last summer when she was fighting the Conservative leadership campaign against Rishi Sunak.
Truss is understood to have received the bill from the Cabinet Office three to four weeks ago and is disputing some of it on the grounds that she says part of it covers use of Chevening facilities and its catering while she was working with officials.
Other parts of the bill relate to hospitality for friends and family, which she will pay as expected. She is also expected to pay to replace missing bathrobes, which are understood to come to about £120.
However, a source told the Mail on Sunday, which first reported the large bill, that the Cabinet Office had invoiced Truss for occasions that they believed to be party political rather than official business.
The source told the newspaper: “Liz used Chevening as a mini No 10, holding meetings with her inner circle which often turned into parties in the evening.
“They have also objected to the idea that the taxpayer should foot the bill for what were basically a series of summer parties, and say she owes more than £12,000 for it.”
Truss was prime minister for seven weeks in the autumn, before stepping down in the aftermath of a disastrous budget that spooked the financial markets and cost mortgage costs to jump.
A spokesperson for Truss said she “always paid for the costs of her personal guests at Chevening”.
“The latest invoice contains a mixture of costs for her personally and costs for official government business with civil servants including [the cabinet secretary] Simon Case and senior officials from other departments who met at Chevening during the transition preparations,” he said.
“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.”
A government spokesperson said: “Costs and funding relating to Chevening House are a matter for the Chevening Trust. Where appropriate, we work closely with them to ensure costs incurred are allocated accordingly.”
Chevening is a grace-and-favour home set in 3,000 acres in north-west Kent. Use of the 115-room mansion is traditionally granted to the foreign secretary, and its upkeep is funded by a trust established by an act of parliament.
The Guardian reported in December that traces of a suspected class A drug were found at Chevening after parties attended by political allies of Truss. At the time, a spokesperson for her said in a one-line statement: “This is categorically untrue.” There was no suggestion Truss used the drug or that she would have been aware if drugs were used or present.
