UK Ministers Got at Least £438,000 in Severance in 2022 Turmoil

(Bloomberg) -- The chaos that enveloped the UK Conservative Party last year as administrations led by prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss collapsed cost taxpayers at least — and probably more than — £438,000 ($560,000).

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Severance payments received by 52 departing ministers are detailed in 2022-23 financial reports published by eight government departments on Thursday, according to a review by Bloomberg News. Recipients include Truss and Johnson, who each got £18,660 after their respective ousters.

The sum reflects the fallout of a frenzied year in which the Tories booted out two prime ministers, and cycled through four chancellors of the exchequer and five education secretaries. Johnson’s July 2022 resignation came after five members of his cabinet and 28 more junior ministers quit over 48 hours.

The total is likely significantly higher given Bloomberg’s analysis covers a third of the government’s 24 ministerial departments. It also excludes significantly larger severance payments to civil servants, such as former Treasury Permanent Secretary Tom Scholar, who received £335,000 after being fired by Truss.

The current prime minister, Rishi Sunak, repaid the £16,876 he received when he quit as Johnson’s chancellor, a move blamed by the former premier’s allies on his eventual downfall. That sum isn’t included in Bloomberg’s tally, and nor is the payment Michelle Donelan was entitled to when she quit as education secretary after just 35 hours in the post, because she waived her right.

Truss’s first chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng — who she fired in an effort to shore up her own position — received £16,876, as did other departing cabinet ministers Grant Shapps, Michael Gove, Greg Clark, Simon Clarke, Kit Malthouse, Robert Buckland and Simon Hart.

The sums belie the fact that some ministers received payments following tenures that lasted just a few weeks. Truss’s payoff — after just seven weeks in office that ended because she roiled the markets with her economic plans — comes to more than half the UK’s £33,000 median annual pay.

Johnson to Sunak via Truss: Britain’s Chaotic Year in Numbers

The reports analyzed by Bloomberg included pay for ministers from the Treasury; the Foreign Office; the Department for Transport; the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities; the Ministry of Defense; the Department for Education; the Department of International Trade; and the Wales Office.

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