A Tory Health Minister who pocketed virtually £8,000 in severance pay regardless of returning to the identical job simply seven weeks later has refused handy the money again.
Maria Caulfield claimed she has “never taken a penny in personal expenses for travel or accommodation” and stated she doesn’t have “a second dwelling” in a weird try to justify maintaining the pay-out.
The Tory MP obtained £7,920 when she was faraway from her Government job when Liz Truss became PM in September 2022. The former nurse was re-appointed as a Health Minister when Rishi Sunak entered No10 the next month, but she still clung onto her pay-off. This means she got paid more than if she hadn’t had seven weeks as a backbencher.
Speaking to The Argus, Ms Caulfield said: “I was paid redundancy when I lost my job as a minister, as is the case of all ministers who are sacked. As constituents know, I have always given my annual pay rise to local charities since becoming an MP – the details of which I publish on my website annually. I have never taken a penny in personal expenses for travel or accommodation and I do not have a second home.”
The Liberal Democrats demanded the Lewes MP hand back the cash, which was made public in the Department for Health and Social Care’s annual report and was first reported by the HSJ. Lib Dem Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain said: “This is a slap in the face for taxpayers who have had to pick up the tab for an endless revolving door of Conservative ministers.
“It could also be inside the guidelines nevertheless it’s not inside the spirit of them. Maria Caulfield ought to do the first rate factor and hand this a refund. It simply exhibits that severance cost guidelines should not match for goal and are in want of pressing reform.”
The Tories earlier this month blocked a clampdown on severance payments, that would have seen ministers have their money stopped if they returned to government. Almost £1million was paid out to departing ministers during the chaotic end to Boris Johnson’s premiership and then the arrivals of Ms Truss and Mr Sunak in No10.
Outgoing ministers under 65 are entitled to severance payments equivalent to one quarter of their annual salary. Those reappointed as a minister within three weeks are not eligible. They receive the cash regardless of how long they served in a government post or the circumstances in which they left.
Labour used an Opposition Day Debate to try to reform the system, but they were stopped by 275 votes to 192. The party proposed that outgoing ministers would only be able to claim a quarter of their actual earnings over the previous 12 months. This would have drastically reduced the bill for Tory MPs who served just weeks in Ms Truss’s government from claiming three months in severance. Individuals returned as a ministers would have had their payments slashed and those brought down by scandal would have received nothing at all.