£30k payoff for 10-week MSP
A FORMER MSP will be entitled to a £30,000 golden goodbye after she failed to be elected – despite only being in the job for ten weeks.
Scottish parliament rules allow existing MSPs to claim 50 per cent of their salary as a ‘resettlement grant’.
Labour’s Lesley Brennan replaced North East Scotland regional MSP Richard Baker in January, when he retired to work for Age Scotland. She was sworn in on January 13.
Parliament was dissolved on March 24, meaning Mrs Brennan served as an MSP for ten weeks. Nevertheless, she will receive a £30,342 payout – half a year’s worth of wages.
Labour’s Jenny Marra and Lewis McDonald were elected yesterday on the North East Scotland regional list ahead of Mrs Brennan, who was in third position.
Mrs Brennan, a city councillor, was Labour’s candidate in Dundee East in the 2015 general election, when she turned down a donation from Tony Blair.
When she was sworn in to the Scottish parliament this year she said: ‘I had not expected to become an MSP in this parliamentary session but even although it is only for a short time it is a privilege to represent the people of the North East.’
Former MSPs who retired at the election are to be handed more than £1million in lucrative ‘golden goodbyes’. They will each receive public-funded ‘resettlement grants’ of up to £59,000 to help them adjust to life outside politics, with the first £30,000 tax-free.
The cost to the taxpayer will be higher when handouts for ex-MSPs who failed to win re-election – such as Mrs Brennan – are added on.
The system is considerably more generous than Westminster’s, where the maximum payoff is capped at the equivalent of six months’ salary, compared with 12 months in Scotland.
And in the wake of the expenses scandal, Westminster authorities only give money to former MPs who stand and fail to hold their seat – with those who retire eligible for nothing.