Shamed MPs to get £1m pay-offs

DISGRACED MPs are to pocket their own lucrative share of £153million in golden goodbyes.

GOLDEN GOODBYE Tory MP Andrew MacKay could be leaving with 1 802million GOLDEN GOODBYE: Tory MP Andrew MacKay could be leaving with £1.802million

In one final pre-election hammer blow to taxpayers, every MP quitting parliament is to collect an average of more than £1million, it emerged yesterday.

That includes all those “named and shamed” in the expenses scandal. The staggering pay-offs, which will infuriate millions of hard-pressed families, are made up of gold-plated pensions and generous “resettlement” grants that honest workers in the private sector could only dream about.

Matthew Elliott, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, last night branded the payouts a “disgrace”. He said: “If an employee was caught stealing from their employer, it’s unlikely they would walk away with all their entitlements intact.

DEBATE: HAVE GREEDY MPS DISGRACED BRITAIN?

It’s unfair that disgraced MPs are leaving with golden goodbyes and million pound-plus pension pots.

Matthew Elliott, Taxpayers’ Alliance

“It’s pretty unfair, therefore, that disgraced MPs are leaving with golden goodbyes and million pound-plus pension pots.

“It may be too late to legally reprimand the current crop of exiting MPs, but it should be written into the new expenses arrangements that any future MP who brings disgrace on the House of Commons should face severe financial penalties, including reduction to their pension.”

News of the pay-offs to all retiring MPs, including those “shamed”, comes as the curtain falls on what has become known as the modern Rotten Parliament.

Some 148 MPs have already announced they are quitting at the Election – expected to be announced tomorrow as taking place on May 6 – with many of them leaving in the wake of the expenses furore which shamed Westminster. A further 20 Labour MPs are expected to announce their retirement in the next few days.

It has also emerged that nearly 30 MPs are entitled to a full year’s salary as compensation for leaving office, although many have volunteered to step down.

And 58 have racked up final salary pensions that would cost an ordinary person £1million to buy. Many of the largest pay-offs and pension pots have been accumulated by MPs who are leaving parliament following embarrassment over their expenses claims.

A recent poll found that nearly half of voters believe this parliament is the most corrupt of all time and there is likely to be public anger at the cost of the mass clear-out of the Commons. The figure will rise as more MPs are voted out.

Andrew MacKay, Conservative MP for Bracknell who became notorious in the expenses scandal, will collect the largest package, worth a total of more than £1.8million.

Mr MacKay, 60, formerly a senior aide to Tory leader David Cameron, exploited the second homes allowance with Julie Kirkbride, his wife and fellow Conservative MP, subsidising two different houses with public money.

The MPs’ scheme is one of the most generous in the public sector. Members contribute between 6 per cent and 10 per cent of their salary to the pension fund, which accrues up to 1/40th of a member’s final salary for each year they serve in parliament.

The Daily Express revealed last week how Labour trio David Chaytor, 60, Elliot Morley, 57, and Jim Devine, 56, are likely to spend Election day in court after a three-day hearing to decide if the politicians can be put on trial was fixed for May 4 to May 6.

They are charged with theft by false accounting, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years in jail. Lord Hanningfield, 69, is the fourth politician to face charges over expenses.

They all deny the allegations.

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