Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has been urged not to collect a “golden goodbye” of nearly £17,000 as a result of leaving the cabinet. Sir Keir Starmer is facing calls to deny her the payment in the wake of her resignation following failure to pay the full stamp duty due on her £800,000 seaside flat.
If she had resigned just weeks later she may not have qualified for the payout. Cabinet ministers are entitled to receive a quarter of their annual ministerial salary as a payout. However, from October the rules change so those whose departures follow a “serious breach” of the ministerial code will no longer qualify.
The change does not come into force until October 13, so the ex-DPM should be eligible for a £16,876 payment.
Conservative party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said: “If she has any integrity then surely she must decline any severance payment.”
Alex Burghart, the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “Angela Rayner has finally resigned – after Keir Starmer was too weak to remove her, even after her position became totally untenable. But it is totally perverse for the British taxpayer, already struggling with the consequences of Labour’s economic mismanagement, to be forced to foot the bill Rayner faces for her unpaid tax and potential fines.
“There should be no reward for wrongdoing. Keir Starmer must immediately strip her of these severance payments or he will confirm once again that it really is one rule for Labour, and one for everyone else.”