Donald Trump golf resorts claimed at least ?3.3m in UK furlough support

Donald Trump's loss-making Scottish golf resorts claimed in excess of £3.3m in emergency support from the UK government, to help furlough staff during the Covid pandemic.

Company accounts for the former president's resorts at Turnberry in Ayrshire and Balmedie, north of Aberdeen, show his businesses cut 273 jobs due to the Covid crisis last year, while also claiming £2.8m in furlough support.

Other government data shows Trump Turnberry and Trump International Scotland in Aberdeenshire then made further claims this year while the UK government's job retention scheme was still in force.

The BBC reported those claims, not yet included in the Trump companies' accounts, were worth between £520,000 and £1.3m, leading to a total claim for furlough funding of between £3.3m and £4.1m overall.

The resorts reported heavy losses due to their enforced closure during the lockdowns: the headline loss for Turnberry was £3.4m, after a £321,000 profit in 2019, and £1.3m at Balmedie, compared to a loss of £1.1m in 2019.

The accounts also show both resorts owe more money to Trump: loans from the former president's own funds and the holding company he controls to both businesses now total £159m. The accounts report the assets - the land, buildings and equipment - at Turnberry are worth £86m, and £32m for the Aberdeenshire resort.

The accounts suggest the family holding company injected £1.1m into the Balmedie business to help with day-to-day cashflow after it was forced to close the resort's boutique hotel, named after his Scottish mother, Mary MacLeod, for the whole of 2020. It did not reopen until April this year.