Ex-Labour Ministers 'rewarded for failure' with £1m

FORMER Labour Ministers were accused of collecting a "reward for failure" after pocketing more than £1m in golden goodbyes simply for being kicked out of office.

The payments were branded a "final insult" with the public sector braced for thousands of jobs losses and civil servants being told their own redundancy payouts will be capped.

Dozens of Ministers collected payments worth three months' salary – ranging from 7,734 for junior posts to 19,643 for cabinet Ministers – even though they are either still MPs or will have received tens of thousands of pounds in "resettlement grants" having stood down or lost their seat at the general election.

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The payouts are particularly controversial at a time when a two-year pay freeze has been imposed on public sector workers and Ministers are to force through a cap on redundancy payments for civil servants ahead of a predicted 600,000 public sector job losses in the coming years.

Yesterday Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude announced that legislation is to be introduced as soon as possible to cap redundancy payments to civil servants, saying the decision – which had been taken "with reluctance" – was necessary because of the economic climate.

The announcement was met with fury by unions, but Mr Maude said a Bill would be introduced to limit all compulsory redundancy pay-offs to 12 months' pay and limit amounts for voluntary severance to 15 months' salary.

Currently a small number of long-time employees have been able to leave with packages worth six years' pay, which Mr Maude said was "untenable".

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Unions attacked the move as "unlawful and undeserved" and raised the threat of legal and industrial action which could herald a summer of discontent.

But Mr Maude's speech made no mention of reports that the Government would seek to introduce regional pay in the civil service – which would allow lower rates of pay outside London – and the Cabinet Office said there were no plans for such a scheme "at this time".

It was Mr Maude who also published the figures showing that former Labour ministers were paid 1,051,202 after losing their posts following the formation of the coalition Government.

Anyone aged under 65 was entitled to the payout, worth one quarter of their annual claimed ministerial salary, apart from Labour's acting leader Harriet Harman and chief whip Nick Brown, who are paid for their roles in opposition.

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Pete Wishart, the Scottish Nationalist Party MP who obtained the information, said: "At a time when workers across the public sector are paying the price of Labour's mismanagement of the economy, these golden goodbyes are the final insult.

"Voters kicked Labour out of office, and these payments are essentially a reward for failure."

Under Labour, ministers' pay was made up of an MP's salary of 64,766 plus a top-up which depended on seniority within the government. Cabinet ministers were entitled to an extra 78,575, while ministers of state received an extra 40,759 and junior ministers 30,937.

Mark Wallace, campaign director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "These payments are utterly unjustified. Ministers lost their jobs because the people wanted rid of them, so there is no way they should be given rewards for their failure."

SEVERANCE PAY FOR POLITICIANS

How much former Ministers received in severance pay:

Business, Innovation and Skills 54,626

Cabinet Office 37,464

Communities and Local Government 55,339

Culture, Media and Sport 27,302

Children, Schools and Families 75,870

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 37,464

Foreign and Commonwealth Office 37,464

Health 75,870

Home Office 73,421

International Development 37,464

Ministry of Defence 55,546

Ministry of Justice 53,832

Northern Ireland Office 10,162

Scotland Office 51,448

Transport 52,177

HM Treasury (including payments to Government whips) 170,146

Treasury Solicitors 44,884

Wales Office 27,302

Work and Pensions 73,421

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