Ministers’ Severance Pay

Nigel Evans Excerpts

Monday 11th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[David Linden (Glasgow East) (SNP)]

A supermarket worker from Shettleston would not get thousands of pounds in a severance payment. Why should Rishi Sunak, the richest man in Parliament, get a severance payment?

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)]

Order. Do not name Members by their names, please. You could say former Chancellor of the Exchequer—

[David Linden]

Prime Ministerial hopeful, surely.

[Mr Deputy Speaker]

Order. You stand corrected.

[Mrs Wheeler]

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Absolutely, we do not use names, do we? I thank the hon. Gentleman for the question. It is very simple: this is a matter of statute law, it has been around since 1991, and all the different political parties have taken use of it. That is where we are.

[Mr Deputy Speaker]

Mr Brown, let’s see if you can do better than your colleague.

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. When the new Education Minister gave a one-fingered salute to the crowd outside Downing Street, that was symptomatic of this Government, who have been putting two fingers up to the entire UK for the tenure of the former Prime Minister. Given that we have a zombie Government, with Ministers who are clearly in place on a temporary basis, does this Minister agree that they should not take severance payments when they rightfully get sacked when a new Tory leader comes in?