'Rather rude': Truss accused of poaching members from plush rival club in Mayfair

For Tory grandees licking their wounds and plotting their return after the disastrous general election, the opulent, firelit rooms of the exclusive club 5 Hertford Street area a sanctuary.

- Helena Horton

But in recent weeks their long lunches have been interrupted by Liz Truss, who has been accused of wandering the premises in search of members to poach for her own rival club just one street away. The new club, the Leconfield, asks “founding members” for an eye-watering £500,000.

Truss’s alleged headhunting is understood to have irritated those who run 5 Hertford Street, including the owner Robin Birley, who is the son of Lady Annabel Goldsmith and the nightclub owner Mark Birley. His friend says: “It is rather rude, but at £500k, we are rather better value.” Membership is a relative snip at less than £2,000 a year.

On a recent December afternoon, the bauble-bedecked club bursting at the seams with Tory grandees and their sequin-clad guests, a member asked the Guardian: “Who would pay half a million to hang out with Liz Truss?”

‘The Leconfield was dreamed up by Truss and the property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz, who is transforming his Curzon Street offices for the venture. Unlike 5 Hertford Street, with its gleaming, blood-red facade, Leconfield House is an office block opposite a William Hill betting shop.