Facebook millionaire Clegg claimed £113k of cash from taxpayer
NICK Clegg claimed £113,000 from the public purse for ‘public duties’ last year.
The ex-deputy prime minister was paid from the ‘public duty cost allowance’ (PDCA) normally only available to ex-premiers, who can claim up to £115,000 a year for life.
The entitlement is to cover the costs of offices and secretarial needs incurred ‘because of their special position in public life’.
But for several months of 2018, Sir Nick drew a seven-figure salary 5,000 miles away in California as Facebook’s head of global affairs.
Tory MPs branded the situation a ‘disgrace’. However a spokesman for Sir Nick said he had kept to the rules and had stopped claiming the allowance voluntarily.
Sir Nick, who resigned as deputy prime minister after the Lib Dems were routed at the 2015 general election, joined Facebook in October, later moving into a £7million house in the Silicon Valley enclave of Atherton, one of the most exclusive postcodes in the US.
But despite the benefits of the job, which includes generous stock options, the Cabinet Office allowed Sir Nick to claim PDCA. Latest figures show that former leaders Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Sir John Major all claimed close to the £115,000 ceiling in the 2018-19 financial year.
David Cameron, who earns large sums from corporate speeches and is about to release a lucrative memoir, was paid just over £110,000.
Sir Nick, who was Mr Cameron’s deputy in the Coalition govern
‘It’s a complete disgrace’
ment between 2010 and 2015, claimed £112,882. Although his Facebook salary is not known, he is certain to receive a generous package running into several million pounds, including base pay, a bonus and shares. Facebook second in command Sheryl Sandberg received £19.3million last year.
Sir Nick’s spokesman said he ceased claiming PDCA before Christmas, but admitted he had already spent nearly the maximum for the year. The spokesman added: ‘ Sir Nick claimed the PDCA allowance in 2018-2019 in full accordance with Cabinet Office guidelines to contribute towards the costs of running a private office and supporting his role in public life.
‘Sir Nick wrote to the Cabinet Office in October 2018 to state that he would not make any further claims on the PDCA after his office closed in December 2018.
‘The final backdated claim was therefore submitted in November 2018. Sir Nick has never received any personal salary from the PDCA. Recipients of the PDCA have always been allowed to earn money commercially as part of their wider work.
‘But Nick Clegg decided – voluntarily – that he did not want to do so whilst receiving the PDCA.’
However, Sir Nick faced furious backlash last night.
Tory MP Nigel Evans said: ‘What a snout, what a trough – but we are paying. It is a complete disgrace.’ Sir Nick spoke of his Silicon Valley life in an interview with New Statesman magazine this month, saying: ‘I never wear a suit and there’s micro-kitchens everywhere with a mix of healthy food.
‘You don’t have the Westminster lunching culture. Lunch is basically broccoli with some suspect sauce while you’re in a meeting.
‘I stick out like a sore thumb. I honestly think I would blend in more in Sicily or Bavaria than I do in California.’