New Defence Secretary Wes Streeting will not be paid for his first three months in the role, HuffPost UK has revealed, in a move designed to offset the resignation pay-off he received when he quit as Health Secretary earlier this year.
Streeting resigned from the Department of Health and Social Care in protest at Keir Starmer's leadership, a move that entitled him to a severance payment of £16,876, equivalent to three months of a cabinet minister's salary. His swift return to government under new Prime Minister Andy Burnham raised immediate questions over whether he would keep that payment on top of his new ministerial salary.
According to guidance from the House of Commons library, ministers reappointed to government within three months of standing down are expected to forgo their salary until the full three-month period has elapsed. Streeting is understood to be following that convention, meaning he will draw no ministerial pay at the Ministry of Defence until the three months since his resignation have passed.
Angela Rayner Refuses to Hand Back Her Severance
The contrast with Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has not gone unnoticed. Rayner resigned as deputy prime minister and housing secretary last year after admitting she had underpaid stamp duty on the purchase of an £800,000 seaside flat, a departure that triggered her own resignation payment. Unlike Streeting, whose return to government came within weeks, Rayner spent close to a year outside the Cabinet before Burnham brought her back as Housing Secretary.
Asked directly whether she would repay the money, Rayner said: "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."
Because Rayner's gap outside government fell well beyond the three-month threshold that applies to ministers like Streeting, she is under no formal obligation to return the payment or forgo her new salary, a position her office has confirmed.
Political Reaction
The decision has drawn criticism from the Conservatives. Shadow Housing Secretary James Cleverly said Rayner had "pocketed a £17,000 reward courtesy of the taxpayer," and argued she had been handed her old job back "courtesy of her mate Andy Burnham." He said she should hand back the money regardless of whether the rules technically required it.
The disparity between the two ministers has added an awkward footnote to Burnham's first reshuffle as prime minister, with critics arguing that voluntary gestures such as Streeting's throw a sharper spotlight on cases, like Rayner's, where no such gesture has been offered.
Why It Matters
Ministerial severance payments have long been a source of public frustration, particularly when ministers return to well-paid roles shortly after receiving a pay-off intended to bridge unemployment. Streeting's decision to forgo his salary, even though he was not strictly required to hand back the payment itself, is likely to be read as an attempt to avoid the kind of criticism previously directed at ministers such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, who kept a full severance payment despite a seven-week tenure in a previous government. Rayner's more prolonged absence from Cabinet means her position sits on firmer procedural ground, even if it has proved less comfortable politically.