FORMER UK PRIME Minister Liz Truss was paid £32,000 (€37,400) for speaking at a conference in Dublin last year.
Truss was the big ticket draw on the first day of the European Broadcasting Union’s News Xchange conference in the Convention Centre on 19 June last year.
It was one of a number of speaking engagements she carried out last year following her 49-day term in Downing Street from September to October 2022.
The Conservative MP’s Register of Interests shows that Truss received the payment for participating in a discussion at the conference from News Agenda Ltd, who organised the event.
The register shows that the company paid approximately £720 (€840) for accommodation for Truss, her husband Hugh O’Leary and a staff member.
The company also paid £2,377 (€2,777) for flights to Dublin.
The register recorded the fee as covering approximately two hours of work. The payment was declared on 24 July and registered on 2 August.
MPs have 28 days to register any change to their registrable interests.
RTÉ’s David McCullagh interviewed Truss at the conference and raised a number of topics with her, including her short time in office, her use of social media, Boris Johnson and the infamous Liz Truss lettuce, which she described as “puerile”.
McCullagh quizzed Truss about photographs she posed for that were eerily reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher, claiming she attempted to be a “Thatcher tribute act”.
Truss denied that this was a strategy, saying that this was “lazy thinking”.
She also described the House of Commons report that found her predecessor Boris Johnson lied to the UK Parliament over partygate as “overly harsh”.
“He himself has said he’s made mistakes, and none of us are perfect,” she said.
“I’m not questioning the integrity of the report that parliamentarians have put forward. I think the judgment is pretty harsh, but I’m not questioning the integrity of those people.”
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