The coup cost you £423k: the payoffs to former ministers are huge…including £16,876 for the education secretary who held the post for just 36 hours
- Michelle Donelan, who was education secretary for 36 hours, gets a payout
- The severance pay, worth almost £17,000, will be donated to charity
- Ms Donelan was promoted to university minister but joined the cabinet mutiny
- By quitting, she lined herself up to receive three months’ salary
- Lib Dem analysis found severance pay for all those who resign equals £400k
A former minister vowed yesterday to give her severance pay to charity after it was revealed she will receive nearly £17,000 in return for her resignation.
Michelle Donelan was promoted from university secretary to education secretary for just 36 hours before joining the cabinet mutiny yesterday morning.
The severance pay is worth three months’ salary – more than she would have received had she resigned in her younger role.
The £16,876.25 payment was revealed as part of an astonishing £423,000 in severance payments that taxpayers believed were Tory ministers who resign en masse in the uprising against Boris Johnson†
Under the Ministerial and Other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991 MPs who leave office are entitled to a quarter of their annual ministerial salary as severance pay.
Michelle Donelan (pictured) is in line for a severance package of nearly £17k despite holding the post of education secretary for just 36 hours before shedding her weight behind the coup and resigning
Miss Donelan responded on Twitter, saying: ‘If this is the case, I will donate it in full to a local charity.’ She later said that she had asked if there was a way to prevent the payment from ever coming to her, but had received no response.
More than 50 MPs have resigned from government or party positions since Tuesday evening.
Analysis conducted by the Liberal Democrats showed that payments to all ministers, including Mr Johnson, will amount to £423,000. The Prime Minister is standing in line for £18,860.
Lib Dem chief Wendy Chamberlain said: “Conservative MPs defended Boris Johnson for months and failed to get rid of him when they had the chance…
An analysis conducted by the Lib Dems has shown that severance payments to all mutinous ministers along with the payment owed to Boris Johnson after his resignation today will rise to a staggering £423,000. Pictured: Prime Minister making his declaration of resignation outside number 10 Downing Street
Now conservative infighting and sheer incompetence has cost taxpayers even more money during this cost of living crisis.
“Conservative ministers who have resigned must do the right thing and leave their payouts behind for the good of the country.”
In the House of Commons, Labor Rupa Huq asked Cabinet Secretary Michael Ellis: ‘Can he confirm that they will forfeit their entitlement to this because we do not reward failure?’
Mr Ellis replied: ‘The matter to which she refers is enshrined in law, so it is a matter before the law, and that law would have been passed by this Parliament.’