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Liz Truss claiming from fund for ex-PMs despite only 49 days in office

19 Sep 2023 2 minute read
Prime Minister Liz Truss during a press conference in the briefing room at Downing Street. Photo Daniel Leal PA Images

Liz Truss has been claiming from the £115,000-a-year public fund awarded to former prime ministers despite only serving for 49 days.

Cabinet Office accounts released on Tuesday show that the Conservative MP claimed £23,310 in her first five months out of office.

It was understood she has continued to claim in the current financial year that started in April, but the sum will not be disclosed until next year’s report.

Ms Truss’s office declined to comment.

After she announced her resignation, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was among those arguing that Ms Truss should “turn it down” because of the brief time spent in No 10.

The Liberal Democrats’ Cabinet Office spokeswoman Christine Jardine urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to “do the right thing and stop Liz Truss from claiming taxpayers’ cash from the ex-PM fund”.

“It’s an outrage that while families struggle to pay their bills and put food on the table, Liz Truss profits from her own failure,” she said.

“If Liz Truss wants to cut tax she should lead by example and stop taking hardworking British taxpayers for a ride by claiming handouts.”

Office costs

The Public Duty Cost Allowance affords former prime ministers up to £115,000 a year to cover office and secretarial costs arising from public duties.

Applicable costs including those for running an office, handling correspondence as an ex-PM and for support with visits.

Sir Tony Blair and Sir John Major were the only former leaders to claim the maximum amount in 2022/23, though Gordon Brown was close on £114,627.

Ms Truss’s chaotic tenure in No 10 ended on October 25 after losing the support of Tory MPs.

On Monday she defended her economic crisis-inducing mini-budget a year on from her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng unveiling the £45 billion package of unfunded tax cuts.

She hit out at economists and “institutional bureaucracy” for her downfall as she hinted at further plans to intervene in Tory politics at the party conference next month.

The Cabinet Office accounts also detailed the total cost of Boris Johnson’s taxpayer-funded legal defence to the inquiry that found he lied to MPs over partygate.

The final cost was put at £263,079, in line with what the department had previously revealed.


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Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago

Every picture tells a story…

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago
Reply to  Mab Meirion

What kind of twisted satanic fascistic cultist idea of themselves did this gang of thieving grotesque gargoyles entertain…beyond the wit of homo sapiens to fathom…

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago

Some trough, I feel a Steve Bell cartoon coming on, up the revolution eh Wolfie Smith…

Steve Woods
Steve Woods
1 year ago

High gains grifter…

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
1 year ago
Reply to  Steve Woods

Oh, I like that one. Smooth!

Linda Jones
Linda Jones
1 year ago

The gravy train rolls on for ex PMs while the rest of us struggle to pay the bills. They are not even trying to rip us off discreetly anymore, its there in plain sight. Westminster is totally corrupt and we need out.

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago

Everywhere you look…Gove to sell off Birmingham…watch out Cardiff…

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
1 year ago

It’s always a Tory who bangs on about ‘our values’. These are their ‘values’. Take this nauseating offence into the ballot box when you go.

Blinedig
Blinedig
1 year ago
Reply to  Fi yn unig

They don’t have values

Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
1 year ago

Mr Blair insists he is worth less than twenty million but takes every last penny of the £115,000 from the public purse…Politicians and Kings I would not waste my urine on them..

Fi yn unig
Fi yn unig
1 year ago

Lettuce condemn her immorality.

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