Nadine Dorries was mistakenly handed a golden goodbye value greater than £16,000 when she stepped down as Culture Secretary.
The former Tory MP obtained the beneficiant severance cost despite the fact that she was not entitled to the money as she was over 65. 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.
Departing ministers get a cost equal to 3 months’ wages, however the Ministerial and different Pensions and Salaries Act 1991 states they’re solely entitled to the money in the event that they beneath the age of 65. The newest blunder emerged after the Mirror revealed earlier this week that flasher ex-MP Peter Bone had wrongly been paid virtually £5,600 after he spent simply 82 days as Deputy Commons Leader beneath Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. He was 69 on the time.
Baroness Stedman-Scott and Sir David Evennett additionally obtained beneficiant severance packages after they left their Government roles regardless of being over the age of 65. Baroness Stedman-Scott, who was 67, received £17,442 when she stood down as a Department of Work and Pensions minister in 2022. Sir David received £4,479 when he left his submit as a Government whip in October 2022 despite the fact that he was 73. The wrongful cost to Ms Dorries was first reported by The Times.
Figures present a complete of £933,086 in taxpayers’ cash was handed out in pay-offs in a single yr because the adjustments in PM from Mr Johnson to Ms Truss after which Rishi Sunak led to an unprecedented turnover in ministers.
The Mirror reported earlier this week that Ms Dorries’s Friday evening speak present has been axed after lower than a yr on air. Her weekly programme won’t be returning to screens, after being absent from the schedules since earlier than Christmas. Ms Dorries is in discussions with the struggling tv channel about whether or not she’s going to proceed to have a job.
“We are just in talks about a new contract,” she instructed the Mirror. Asked whether or not she could have her personal present, she stated she couldn’t say. Ms Dorries insisted her Friday evening present had not been a flop. She stated: “The programme did great actually… so I live in the Cotswolds and a year of standing on Paddington Station at 7 o’clock at night to go home isn’t what I want to do.”
The ex-MP first appeared on Talk TV as a visitor presenter in October 2022 when she struggled to learn from the autocue. Despite her on-air stumble, she was handed her personal weekly Friday evening present at the start of February final yr.