Matt Hancock should be denied £16,000 severance pay entitlement, Labour says

‘We will certainly be calling that out and asking the prime minister not to give him that’

(AFP via Getty Images)

Matt Hancock should be denied the £16,000 severance pay he is entitled to by law, Labour has demanded.

Sir Keir Starmer’s party said the public would be “appalled” that Mr Hancock, who dramatically resigned last night, could be in line for the payout that all ministers typically receive when they leave office.

It comes after the former health secretary announced his decision to leave the cabinet following the emergence of footage of him breaching Covid rules with aide Gina Coladangelo in his private office at the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Speaking on Sunday, the party’s shadow housing minister Lucy Powell said people would be “appalled to think that there’s going to be a severance payment to Mat Hancock in this circumstance”.

On top of an MPs’ salary of £81,000, cabinet ministers are entitled to a further £67,505, according to the latest figures, and are also eligible for a severance payment upon leaving government.

Under the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991, ministers under the age of 65 are entitled to a quarter of their ministerial salary — regardless of whether they resign or are sacked — meaning Mr Hancock could be in line for around £16,876.

It was not immediately clear, however, whether the former health secretary will accept the payment all ministers are given when departing office.

Speaking to Sky News’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday, Ms Powell contrasted the potential payout of thousands of pounds with the one per cent pay proposal for the NHS, insisting people would be “pretty disgusted”.

“We will certainly be calling that out and asking the prime minister not to give him that,” she added.

Munira Wilson MP, the Liberal Democrat health spokesperson, also piled pressure on over the severance paying, saying: “Taxpayers will be appalled that a minister resigning in disgrace stands to be rewarded with a £16,000 payout.

"The prime minister’s judgement was already under question following his decision to stand by Matt Hancock just 48 hours ago. Now the public will be scratching their heads again as Boris Johnson is set to reward his mate with a bonus for his failings. It is a totally out of touch thing to do and the PM should scrap the payment immediately."

Labour have also suggested the police should investigate whether Mr Hancock broke the law and separate questions continue to mount over his former department’s appointment process for Ms Coladangelo – a University friend of Mr Hancock.

Ms Powell said her colleague Fleur Anderson had referred the former health secretary to the police to investigate whether any laws had been broken, saying: “At the time, you’ll remember, when this video was taken, we were all told that we could only have close contact with those that we were in a bubble with, they were our bubble, and that was the only people we could have close contact with, that was the law at the time.

“It now turns out that Matt Hancock was actually in two bubbles at the same time, unbeknown to other people in that bubble, and that is how infection spreads. So yes, there are serious issues here which need further investigation.”