Liz Truss: PM's chief of staff is not employed by the government

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Mark Fullbrook after meeting Downing Street

Photo: Dominic Lipinski / picture alliance / empics

The main advisor to the new British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, is not employed by the government.

Chief of Staff Mark Fullbrook has been seconded by his own PR firm, the central government agency, the Cabinet Office, told the Sunday Times newspaper.

Commentators pointed out that it's unclear how much salary Fullbrook earns and who he owes.

Government critics also suspect that the construction serves to avoid taxes: the income tax rate in Great Britain is higher than the corporate tax rate.

The 60-year-old used to hold high office in the Conservative Party before joining a lobbying firm.

In that year Fullbrook went into business for himself and ran the Truss campaign.

The Cabinet Office further announced that the ethics department had reviewed the personnel and had not raised any objections.

It is not unusual for government employees to be seconded by other companies.

Any applicable taxes would be paid to Fullbrook's corporation.

Questioned by the FBI

Fullbrook recently hit the headlines after a bribery scandal in Puerto Rico.

In early August, investigators from the US Federal Police arrested Wanda Vázquez Garced, the former governor of the US territory.

She is accused of accepting $300,000 from banker Julio Herrera Velutini, who in return hoped to get the head of the local bank regulator fired.

During the course of the proceedings, investigators also questioned Fullbrook, who had advised the accused banker Herrera Velutini.

Fullbrook stressed that he was only appearing as a witness in the US proceedings and was cooperating "fully and voluntarily with the US authorities".

He and the banker only had to do with each other in the field of opinion research.

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Fullbrook was also at times an adviser to Boris Johnson.

Among his US clients was Newt Gingrich, a hard-liner Republican.

The banker Herrera Velutini, on the other hand, was a major donor to the British Conservatives in the past: according to the Financial Times, he transferred a total of half a million pounds to the Tories in recent years.

mpz/dpa