Boris Johnson And Liz Truss Pocketed Bumper Taxpayer-Funded Payouts After Quitting

Severance cash given to former PMs branded a "slap in the face" for the public.
JUSTIN TALLIS via Getty Images

Boris Johnson and Liz Truss each pocketed £18,660 in taxpayers’ money when they quit as prime minister, it has emerged.

The payout for Truss works out at around £380 for every day she was in the job.

Kwasi Kwarteng, who was Truss’s chancellor and the man who delivered the disastrous mini-Budget, was handed a severance payment of £16,876.

And Chris Pincher, who resigned as Johnson’s deputy chief whip after being accused of groping two men, received £7,920.

The payouts were revealed in the Treasury accounts published on Thursday, the final day of the parliamentary term before summer.

Truss received the cash despite only being PM for 49 days, while Kwarteng was chancellor for just 38 days.

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “After the mess the Tories have left our country in, they should be hanging their heads in embarrassment, not walking away with an enormous payoff.

“At a time when people up and down the country are struggling to pay their mortgages and put food on the table, it shows a staggering lack of shame for them to accept this money, but is exactly what we’ve come to expect from a bunch of Tories who only care about themselves.”

Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader, said the payments were “a slap in the face for all those who have seen their mortgages soar”.

“It is frankly insulting that whilst people struggle with the cost-of-living crisis, those responsible for their financial hardship are being showered with tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ cash,” she said.

“If any of these disgraced former Conservative ministers had a shred of integrity left they would hand these payouts back.”

Tom Scholar, who was sacked by Truss as the Treasury’s top civil servant on her first day in power, was given a severance payment of £335,000, plus £122,000 in annual leave adjustments and compensation in lieu of notice.

Last week Sky News revealed Truss has the highest hourly rate of pay for a current MP, thanks to well paid work outside of parliament she has taken since leaving No.10.

The analysis showed showed the former PM made an average of £15,770 per hour in this parliament from second jobs.

Johnson’s hourly rate is higher than Truss’, coming in at £21,822, but he has stepped down as an MP and no longer has to declare his earnings.

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