Nadine Dorries to hand back £16,876 of taxpayers' cash she was paid 'by mistake'
Nadine Dorries has said she will hand back a golden goodbye worth more than £16,000 which she was awarded by mistake.
Bungling officials awarded the former Conservative MP a severance payment when she stepped down as Culture Secretary - despite the fact she was not entitled to the cash. Government accounts show Ms Dorries got a £16,876 pay-off in September 2022 when she left her Cabinet job as Boris Johnson stepped down as PM.
At the time she was 65. Under the rules, departing ministers are entitled to a payment equivalent to three months’ wages but only if they under the age of 65.
Nadine Dorries was handed the bumper payoff when she stepped down as Culture Secretary (Getty Images)Asked if she would give back the cash, Ms Dorries told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: "I only saw the email on Friday night when I got home. But that means that everybody knows that I'm not 49. Yeah I'll pay it back on Monday morning. There were no details in the email on how to pay it back but I'm sure I'll find out."
It comes after the Mirror revealed that flasher ex-MP Peter Bone was wrongly paid almost £5,600 for serving for just 82 days as Deputy Commons Leader under Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. The veteran politician was 69 when he was handed the payout.
Boris Johnson attempts to defend partygate and Brexit on Nadine Dorries Show
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.
A whopping £933,086 of taxpayers’ cash was handed out in golden goodbyes during the political chaos of 2022. 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.
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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 bill including their bosses to £3.83 million.
Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry said: “It comes to something when Nadine Dorries shows more moral leadership than her former Conservative colleagues. Those who have benefited from abuses of the broken ministerial severance system such as Peter Bone and Johnny Mercer should consider their consciences today. And the Prime Minister should immediately follow Labour’s plan to clean up Westminster by reforming the system as we have set out.”
No10 has said there were no plans to reform the system. Last week, 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."
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