Nadine Dorries handy again £16,876 of taxpayers’ money she was paid ‘by mistake’

Nadine Dorries has stated she is going to hand again a golden goodbye price greater than £16,000 which she was awarded by mistake.

Bungling officers awarded the previous Conservative MP a severance fee when she stepped down as Culture Secretary – regardless of the very fact she was not entitled to the money. Government accounts present Ms Dorries received a £16,876 pay-off in September 2022 when she left her Cabinet job as Boris Johnson stepped down as PM.

At the time she was 65. Under the principles, departing ministers are entitled to a fee equal to 3 months’ wages however provided that they underneath the age of 65.

Asked if she would give again the money, Ms Dorries informed the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “I only saw the email on Friday night when I got home. But that means that everybody knows that I’m not 49. Yeah I’ll pay it back on Monday morning. There were no details in the email on how to pay it back but I’m sure I’ll find out.”

It comes after the Mirror revealed that flasher ex-MP Peter Bone was wrongly paid virtually £5,600 for serving for simply 82 days as Deputy Commons Leader underneath Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. The veteran politician was 69 when he was handed the payout.

Three different ministers – Maggie Throup, Sir David Evennett and Baroness Stedman-Scott – had been all additionally wrongly awarded compensation on account of their ages, with a complete invoice of £33,107.

A whopping £933,086 of taxpayers’ money was handed out in golden goodbyes throughout the political chaos of 2022. Mr Johnson and Ms Truss each accepted funds of £18,660, regardless of being ousted from workplace in shame. Michael Gove, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Grant Shapps, Dame Priti Patel, Dominic Raab and Kwasi Kwarteng additionally took the payouts.

It was revealed final summer season that £2.9 million of taxpayers’ money was spent on payouts to particular advisers in 2022/23, taking the entire invoice together with their bosses to £3.83 million.

Labour’s Emily Thornberry branded it the “wages of chaos” however No10 stated there have been no plans to reform the system. Last week, Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman stated: “There are long-established rules around severance payments and ministers that lose their roles and are then reappointed in a certain timeframe, for example, are not eligible.

“That is one thing that’s set out clearly and I feel agreed via Parliament. I’m not conscious of any plans to vary that method.”