The cost of departing MPs: £1m
By Ian Dunt
The dozen MPs planning on stepping down at the next election will cost the taxpayer £1 million in golden goodbyes, it has been revealed.
Their continuing salaries – assuming the prime minister leaves the general election until next spring – will hit £600,000, while they sit on a combined pension pot of around £12.5 million.
The figures come as a slew of MPs announce their intention to retire from politics at the next election, including three yesterday – Julie Kirkbride, Christopher Fraser (both Tories) and Margaret Moran (Labour).
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has been urging parliamentarians to consider a tribunal system for when MPs are found guilty of wrongdoing so that constituents no longer have to keep their representative until the next election.
“I can see no reason why an MP who is sacked or decides to stand down should be rewarded with a big, tax-free, lump sum payment,” he said today.
“This money is intended to help people who are suddenly voted out of office, not those who decide to call it a day after being caught with their fingers in the till.”
Beyond the democratic price, there is also a financial one, with the taxpayer stumping up £1,098,000, according to the Independent, as a financial cushion.
Seven of the dozen will receive over £105,000.
The money comes from a “resettlement grant” of up to year’s salary offered to those MPs stepping down or defeated at a general election.
An MP’s yearly salary is £64,766, the first £30,000 of which is tax free.
Of those who have resigned over the expenses scandal only Speaker Michael Martin, who also quit as an MP, intends to leave immediately.
A ‘winding up costs’ allowance – for paying off staff and taking care of general office costs – is also granted up to £40,799.
On top of those payments, the MPs will receive about £55,000 more salary for the time up to next spring.
