The Liberal Democrats have called on sacked and newly reappointed Conservative ministers to forego their redundancy payments, following the reshuffle announced by Rishi Sunak.
Conservative turmoil has led to huge numbers of former ministers being able to claim payouts, with the two reshuffles carried out since July potentially costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Ministers who were sacked just months ago but have now been reappointed are still able to claim thousands of pounds each in redundancy pay, as long as they have been out of a ministerial post for at least three weeks.
For example Dominic Raab, who was sacked by Liz Truss in September but reappointed as Justice Secretary today, would be eligible to receive £16,876 despite only being out of a ministerial job for seven weeks.
Steve Barclay, who was reappointed as Health Secretary after being sacked in September, would also be entitled to the same full redundancy payout.
The Liberal Democrats have called the arrangement a “farce” and said this “revolving door bonus” should be returned to the Treasury to help struggling families with the cost of living.
Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office Spokesperson, Christine Jardine said:
“It beggars belief that while families are struggling to pay their bills, many retiring Conservative ministers are set to receive thousands of pounds, some of them after just a few weeks in the job.
“The Conservatives have trashed the economy, and now expect the British people to endure even more hardship to clean up their mess.
“What staggering unfairness, for the Ministers who got us into this financial mess to be rewarded with taxpayers’ cash.
“Perhaps most egregious of all is the revolving door bonus for ministers who got a payout just months ago and have now already been reappointed.
“It is a complete farce.
“These payouts should be stopped, and the money should be spent on helping the many people who are struggling under Conservative misrule.”
