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Severance payments of nearly £1 million were handed out to Tory ministers who resigned during Boris Johnson and Liz Truss’s chaotic time in Downing Street.
They include Kwasi Kwarteng, who pocketed nearly £17,000 despite only being chancellor for 40 days, during which his disastrous mini Budget caused economic meltdown.
In all, the outgoing frontbenchers received £933,086 in taxpayers’ cash in golden goodbyes during the 2022/23 financial year, figures revealed by Labour revealed.
That is on top of the £2.9 million given to special advisers who left their jobs during the same financial year – taking the total spent on the golden goodbyes to a whopping £3.83 million.
Anyone under the age of 65 who takes on a ministerial role is entitled to a minimum of three months’ salary when they leave, according to Loss of Office rules dating back to 1991.
It even applies to those who have been fired, who resigned or those who have had the whip removed. It does not matter how long they were in the role for.
The only caveat is that they have to pay it back if they return to a new government position within three weeks.
Outgoing ministers can also refuse to accept it.
There were 98 severance payments made to outgoing frontbenchers – including to seven current cabinet members.
Boris Johnson took £18,860 severance after a Tory rebellion kicked him out of office. Liz Truss accepted the same amount after seven weeks in No.10.
As former PMs, they both get the Public Duty Costs Allowance, too – that’s a maximum of £115,000 per year for life.
Kwarteng went home with his full severance of £16,876, despite crashing the economy during his brief stint in the Treasury.
Former housing minister Chris Pincher lost his job after misconduct allegations – and accepted £7,920 in severance.
Peter Bone, previously deputy leader of the Commons, lost his job after 11 weeks when Truss took over, and received £5,953. He had the whip withdrawn last year over misconduct allegations, and is no longer an MP.
Priti Patel,Nadine Dorries, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Simon Clarke and Alok Sharma all received £16,876 for their ministerial roles.
Brandon Lewis even claimed two of these severance packages in the same financial year – meaning he took home £33,752 for serving under Truss and Johnson.
Labour’s shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry described these payments as “wages of chaos”.
She said this money is a “sick reward for the mess they made of our country and the damage they did to our economy”.
Touching on the cost of living crisis, she said: “In a year when families were desperately struggling to pay their bills and put food on the table, it is disgraceful to think that more than £900,000 was spent on severance payments for the ministers who helped to deepen that misery.”
She said “none of those individuals have any shame, and the sooner we put them all permanently out of office the better.”
Sunak has already racked up an impressive bill for this financial year – his November 2023 reshuffle alone cost £112,602.
