Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has defended her decision not to repay the ministerial severance payment she received after leaving government, following calls from opposition politicians for the money to be returned.
Ms Rayner received a severance payment of £16,876 when she left ministerial office during the previous administration. She returned to Cabinet following Prime Minister Andy Burnham's recent ministerial reshuffle.
Asked during an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live whether she intended to repay the money, Ms Rayner replied:
"No, my severance payment was given to me at the time. I'd worked in Government for a period of time, and then I came out of Government for just under a year, I think is the timetable, and I'll be delivering in Government again."
She also rejected comparisons with ministerial departures during the Conservative governments of 2022, saying:
"On the Conservatives who took their severance, we're talking weeks. Some of them were even a very short period of the time... we're focused on delivering for the British people, not having that chaos."
The comments come after opposition politicians questioned whether ministers who return to government should retain severance payments received when they previously left office.
Ministerial severance payments are provided for under legislation when ministers leave office. The payments are not conditional on how long an individual remains out of government, although political debate has continued over whether they should be repaid if a minister later returns to office.
Ms Rayner has made clear that she does not intend to repay the payment and says she received it in accordance with the rules in place at the time.
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