Skip your redundancy payouts, Lib Dems tell returning ministers
The Independent reports:
Recent Tory turmoil means several sacked ministers – now back in government – are able to claim hefty pay-outs at the taxpayers’ expense.
The Liberal Democrats described the arrangement a “farce” and called on ministers to return their “revolving door bonus” to help struggling families with the cost of living.
Dominic Raab, sacked by Liz Truss but reappointed as justice secretary and deputy PM, would be eligible to receive £16,876 despite only being out of a job for seven weeks.
Steve Barclay, made health secretary by Mr Sunak after being sacked in September, would also be entitled to the same ministerial redundancy pay-out…
Calling for government payments to reappointed ministers to be stopped, Lib Dems’ Cabinet Office spokesperson Christine Jardine said: “What staggering unfairness, for the ministers who got us into this financial mess to be rewarded with taxpayers’ cash … Perhaps most egregious of all is the revolving door bonus for ministers who got a payout just months ago and have now already been reappointed. It is a complete farce”.
Also covered in the Daily Telegraph.
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How can that be?
They had not lost their job as an MP.
This whole self-serving regime has got to stop.
The UK must be a constituted federalised democracy – a servant of the people.
I’m with Ernest.. To be entitled to a redundancy payment, that defines it as a full time job, rather than an elected position with allowances. So if it seen as a job, with a salary, then all the other work ‘on the side’ is illegal; books written whilst employed as an MP become property of Parliament, with the state entitled to the royalties; taking time off at a whim to go on holiday when parliament is in session must also be against the rules. This whole messy corrupt system needs reform, and we should be making that a red line for any cross-party cooperation after the General Election. The country deserves better.
I don’t think that saying all work on the side is illegal is a normal part of the conditions of most jobs? E.g. it’s common for someone to be in a job and write a book on the side, and to be paid (if the book sells!). A supermarket, for example, doesn’t claim ownership of and royalties from if one of its staff writes a book about sport.