Tory minister gives strange excuse for not handing back £8,000 pay-off

20 February 2024 , 17:26

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Maria Caulfield was paid almost £8,000 when she was removed from her Government job (Image: PA)

A Tory Health Minister who pocketed almost £8,000 in severance pay despite returning to the same job just seven weeks later has refused to hand the cash back.

Maria Caulfield claimed she has "never taken a penny in personal expenses for travel or accommodation" and said she does not have "a second home” in a bizarre attempt to justify keeping the pay-out.

The Tory MP received £7,920 when she was removed from her Government job when Liz Truss became PM in September 2022. The former nurse was re-appointed as a Health Minister when Rishi Sunak entered No10 the next month, but she still clung onto her pay-off. This means she got paid more than if she hadn't had seven weeks as a backbencher.

Speaking to The Argus, Ms Caulfield said: “I was paid redundancy when I lost my job as a minister, as is the case of all ministers who are sacked. As constituents know, I have always given my annual pay rise to local charities since becoming an MP - the details of which I publish on my website annually. I have never taken a penny in personal expenses for travel or accommodation and I do not have a second home.”

The Liberal Democrats demanded the Lewes MP hand back the cash, which was made public in the Department for Health and Social Care’s annual report and was first reported by the HSJ. Lib Dem Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain said: “This is a slap in the face for taxpayers who have had to pick up the tab for an endless revolving door of Conservative ministers.

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"It may be within the rules but it’s not within the spirit of them. Maria Caulfield should do the decent thing and hand this money back. It just shows that severance payment rules are not fit for purpose and are in need of urgent reform."

The Tories earlier this month blocked a clampdown on severance payments, that would have seen ministers have their money stopped if they returned to government. Almost £1million was paid out to departing ministers during the chaotic end to Boris Johnson’s premiership and then the arrivals of Ms Truss and Mr Sunak in No10.

Outgoing ministers under 65 are entitled to severance payments equivalent to one quarter of their annual salary. Those reappointed as a minister within three weeks are not eligible. They receive the cash regardless of how long they served in a government post or the circumstances in which they left.

Labour used an Opposition Day Debate to try to reform the system, but they were stopped by 275 votes to 192. The party proposed that outgoing ministers would only be able to claim a quarter of their actual earnings over the previous 12 months. This would have drastically reduced the bill for Tory MPs who served just weeks in Ms Truss's government from claiming three months in severance. Individuals returned as a ministers would have had their payments slashed and those brought down by scandal would have received nothing at all.

Sophie Huskisson