Coup has cost you £423,000
That’s bill for payoffs to ex-ministers ... including £16,876 for the education secretary who held post for 36 hours
A FORMER minister pledged yesterday to give her severance pay to charity after it was revealed she will receive almost £17,000 for resigning.
Michelle Donelan had been promoted from universities minister to education secretary for only 36 hours before she joined the Cabinet mutiny yesterday morning.
The severance payment is worth three months of salary – more than she would have received for resigning while in her more junior role.
The £16,876.25 payment was revealed as part of an astonishing £423,000 of severance cash thought to be owed by taxpayers to Tory ministers who resigned en masse in the rebellion against Boris Johnson. Under the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991, MPs leaving office are entitled to a quarter of their annual ministerial salary in severance. Responding on Twitter, Miss Donelan said: ‘if this is the case i shall be donating it in full to a local charity.’ She said later she had asked if there was a way to stop the payment ever coming to her but had not had an answer. More than 50 MPs have resigned from government or party roles since Tuesday night.
Analysis carried out by the Liberal Democrats found that the payments to all ministers including Mr Johnson will add up to £423,000. The Prime Minister is in line for £18,860.
Lib Dem chief whip Wendy Chamberlain said: ‘Conservative MPs spent months defending Boris Johnson and failed to get rid of him when they had the chance... Now Conservative infighting and sheer incompetence has cost the taxpayer yet more money during this cost of living crisis. Conservative ministers who resigned should do the decent thing and pass up their payoffs for the good of the country.’
in the Commons, Labour’s Rupa Huq asked Cabinet Office minister Michael Ellis: ‘Can he confirm they will be forfeiting their right to this, because we do not reward failure?’ Mr Ellis replied: ‘The matter she refers to is set in statute so it’s a matter for the law, and that law would have been passed by this House.’