Liz Truss quit her post as Britain’s prime minister just 45 days into the job, but she will be able to claim expenses of up to £115,000 ($129,000) a year for the rest of her life.
Truss, who presided over failed fiscal plans and a deeply polarized ruling party during her disastrous six-week term in office, is set to become the shortest-serving prime minister in British history after announcing her resignation on Thursday.
Her speech triggered a leadership race that will see the appointment of the UK’s fifth Conservative prime minister in just over six years.
Truss is eligible for an annual allowance to cover the cost of public duties after leaving office.
Despite the shortness of her tenure, she is entitled to receive payments under the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA), a government-regulated program introduced in 1990 to “assist former Prime Ministers still active in public life.”
The allowance reimburses former prime ministers for office and secretarial costs arising from their public duties.
“Payments are made only to meet the actual cost of continuing to fulfil public duties,” according to the UK government website.
“All former Prime Ministers are eligible to draw on the PDCA.”
The PDCA has been capped at £115,000 a year since 2011 and is reviewed annually by the sitting prime minister.
Former leaders are also entitled to claim an allowance toward their staff pension costs, which is limited to 10% of the PDCA.
From 2020 to 2021, former prime ministers Theresa May, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and John Major were all reimbursed by varying amounts, according to the Cabinet Office’s Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21.
However, opposition politicians and trade unions are urging Truss to decline the publicly funded annual allowance, as Britons grapple with a cost-of-living crisis resulting from soaring energy prices and inflation at a 40-year high.
When asked about Truss’ entitlement to the allowance, Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said “she should turn it down.”
“She’s done 44 days in office,” he told ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” on Friday.
“She’s not really entitled to it, she should turn it down and not take it.”
On Twitter, one user wrote: “While people are struggling to pay the bills and keep the lights on, Liz Truss will receive a cushy £115,000 yearly allowance – for the rest of her life, and funded by the taxpayer – for 6 weeks of disaster as PM.”
Downing Street has not yet responded to CNN’s request for comment on whether Truss will accept the allowance.
