Ousted Tories pocketed £1m in payouts in Boris Johnson and Liz Truss chaos

25 January 2024 , 17:01

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Liz Truss's disastrous stint in No10 resulted in a massive bill for severance payouts (Image: Getty Images)

Nearly £1 million was paid out to quitting ministers during Boris Johnson and Liz Truss’s chaotic administrations, analysis reveals.

Figures buried in the Department of Health and Social Care’s accounts show Sir Sajid Javid accepted £16,876 in compensation after he helped to trigger Mr Johnson’s exit from No10 by resigning as Health Secretary in July 2022. Sir Sajid was the 20th Cabinet Minister to receive a bumper payoff during the turmoil of 2022, taking the final bill for severance payouts for ministers to £933,086, according to Labour.

Some of those who accepted cash under the "loss of office" rules, re-joined the Government months later. It was revealed last summer that £2.9 million of taxpayers' cash was spent on payouts to special advisers in 2022/23, taking the total cost including their bosses to £3.83 million.

Mr Johnson and Ms Truss both accepted payments of £18,660, despite being ousted from office in disgrace. Michael Gove, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Grant Shapps, Dame Priti Patel, Dominic Raab and Kwasi Kwarteng also took the payouts.

The Mirror previously revealed that Cabinet Office bunglers wrongly awarded flasher ex-MP Peter Bone almost £5,600 of taxpayers’ cash when he was sacked as a minister. The veteran politician was over the age of 65 when he was handed the payout - which means he should not have been eligible.

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Three other ministers - Maggie Throup, Sir David Evennett and Baroness Stedman-Scott - were all also wrongly awarded compensation due to their ages, with a total bill of £33,107.

Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry said: "These are the wages of chaos, with Britain's taxpayers forced to pick up the bill. Thousands of pounds of public money have gone directly into the pockets of Tory minsters, as a sick reward for the mess they made of our country and the damage they did to our economy.

"In a year when families were desperately struggling to pay their bills and put food on the table, it is disgraceful to think that more than £900,000 was spent on severance payments for the ministers who helped to deepen that misery."

Downing Street said there are no plans to change the rules around payouts for ministers.

Rishi Sunak's official spokesman said: "There are long-established rules around severance payments and ministers that lose their roles and are then reappointed in a certain timeframe, for example, are not eligible. That is something that is set out clearly and I think agreed through Parliament. I'm not aware of any plans to change that approach."

Lizzy Buchan