We pose the tough question

THE Sunday Post contacted Scotland’s six MEPs to ask if they would accept a “golden goodbye” in the event of their dismissal.

Ian Hudghton said that, because he and fellow SNP MEP Alyn Smith did not sign up to the new pay and conditions scheme introduced for European Parliamentarians in 2009, they would not get a transitional allowance payment.

Instead they will be entitled to the same resettlement grants given to departing UK MPs.

The remaining MEPs did not state whether they would take or turn down the payments.

Tory Ian Duncan said the question of redundancy payments for MEPs would be addressed at a later point, while David Coburn’s spokesman said “any talk of a resettlement payment from the EU” was “purely academic” until Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty was activated.

Meanwhile, Labour’s Catherine Stihler simply said the payment would take the place of a redundancy package “to assist with the transition period into new employment”.

At the time of going to press, The Sunday Post had not received a response from David Martin despite several attempts to contact him.

A spokeswoman for the Parliament said transitional allowances and pensions for MEPs were applicable in “normal end of service circumstances”.

But she warned: “They are likely to be subject to negotiation – the amounts of potential entitlements that MEPs will be eligible to receive are impossible to predict at this stage.”