Liz Truss hit with £12,000 bill for using Foreign Secretary home to plot bid for No10

LIZ Truss has been hit with a £12,000 bill for using her grace and favour home to plot her bid for No10 last year.

There are claims a number of items went missing, including ­expensive bath robes and slippers, which Ms Truss says she will replace.

But she says most of the bill relates to official government business with senior civil servants, and she should not be liable.

The invoice is for last summer when she was in Kent preparing for her short-lived premiership at Chevening, the Foreign Secretary’s country estate.

She has asked for a more detailed breakdown of the costs amid a row with the Cabinet Office.

Chevening, a 115-room country retreat in Kent, was left to the nation by the 7th Earl Stanhope after his death in 1967 and has traditionally been used by the Foreign Secretary of the day.

A spokesman for Ms Truss said: “Liz 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 (Cabinet Secretary) 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.

“She has therefore asked for this to be billed separately.”