LABOUR is ending the farce that saw Tories including Dame Jackie Doyle-Price take thousands of pounds in pay-offs after serving as ministers for just weeks.
The government is announcing action to clean up politics that includes establishing a new Ethics and Integrity Commission, delivering on a key manifesto promise.
It is also introducing new rules to curb the eligibility for ministerial pay-offs.
A whopping £253,720 was paid in severance to 35 outgoing Tory ministers who had been in post for fewer than six months under the chaos of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss in 2022. Some were in their jobs for as little as 37 days.
Until now, ministers have been entitled to a severance payment equivalent to three months’ salary when they leave office for any reason and regardless of how long they’ve been in the job.
Under Labour’s clampdown, ministers who serve for fewer than six months or who leave office following a serious breach of the Ministerial Code will forgo their severance money.
Tories who took pay-offs despite doing their jobs for only a short period included Dame Jackie Doyle-Price, former MP for Thurrock, who received a payout of £7,920 after spending just 50 days as Business Minister in September and October 2022 under Liz Truss.
A Labour Party spokesperson said:
“Keir Starmer is cleaning up politics after 14 years of sleaze and scandal under the Tories.
“We are ending the farce that saw taxpayers pick up a £250,000 bill as Tories took pay-offs after spending just weeks as ministers under the chaos of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
“As we deliver the Plan for Change, Labour is committed to showing politics can be a force for good and will raise standards across the public sector with our new Ethics and Integrity Commission.”
Other Tories who got severance payments after being in their jobs for weeks included Brandon Lewis and Greg Clark who both received payouts of £16,876 – equivalent to three months’ salary – after just a few weeks of work as Cabinet ministers in the dying days of Boris Johnson’s government.
Rob Butler, Dean Russell, Marcus Fysh, Katherine Fletcher and Sarah Atherton each received £5,593 after spending 37 days as junior ministers during Ms Truss’s disastrous time as PM.
Under Labour’s new rules, ministers who return to office within three months of leaving will forgo their salary until the end of that three-month period.
This change will end the loophole that saw Kemi Badenoch get a pay-off for quitting as a minister and then keep the money when she returned to the frontbench soon after.
The Tory leader received £7,920 when she resigned as a Levelling Up Minister in Boris Johnson’s government on 6 July 2022 but made a comeback exactly two months later when she was appointed to the Cabinet under Liz Truss on 6 September 2022.
Absurdly she ended up getting more money than if she hadn’t taken the summer off the Tory front bench.
