pick up the bill

Lammy said without a deal every passport and all goods would need to be checked leading to "chaos and backlogs, endangering livelihoods of British citizens in Gibraltar, wrecking the territory's economy and possibly costing hundreds of billions of pounds a year, placing pressure ultimately on the UK taxpayer to pick up the bill".

"In opposition we said Liz Truss would crash the economy and leave you to pick up the bill," he is expected to say.

The order suspended the VA’s extensive procurement requirements and ordered the agency to pick up the bill.

It is not known how long the remaining work will take, or who will pick up the bill.

And on that basis, the parliament concluded that they would pick up the bill - with the agreement that £3,000 should come out of Mr Matheson's own office expenses budget.