The legal fees racked up by the cabinet minister after wrongly accusing an academic of supporting or sympathising with Hamas cost the public an additional £19,000, on top of the £15,000 libel settlement.
The revelation last month that the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) would cover the cost of Donelan's libel prompted political anger over the use of public money.
She faced calls to resign from opposition parties and criticism from Tory backbenchers as she was urged to cover the cost of settling the libel action herself after apologising and publicly retracting her remarks.
The department declined at the time to disclose her legal costs. However, a letter from the top official at the department, Sarah Munby, to the shadow science secretary, Peter Kyle, has now revealed the overall bill.
The letter showed that in addition to the costs incurred by the government's legal department of £7,785 for internal legal advice, Donelan sought external private legal counsel, which cost a further £11,600. The figures do not include VAT, which is a recoverable expense.
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