David Cameron paid special advisers an extra £282,000 on leaving No10… against explicit civil service warnings
Massive bump in severance pay came despite UK's top bureaucrat saying he strongly disagreed with the move
David Cameron overruled explicit warnings from the Civil Service to bung his Special Advisers an extra £282,000 in severance pay when he quit No 10.
In revelations that sparked outrage yesterday, it emerged Mr Cameron sent the redundancy pay bill for departing Downing Street political aides soaring from £747,045 to £1,029,938.
Civil service chief executive John Manzoni insisted the outgoing Prime Minister would have to order him in writing to boost the farewell packages because he “strongly” disagreed with the move.
But the PM stuck to his ground and demanded his closest aides receive a six months pay off instead of the four-and-a-half months for which they were contracted.
In 2010 David Cameron promised “to put a limit on the number of special advisers and protect the independence of the civil service”, yet in one of his final acts in office he over ruled the mandarins.
After the PM suggested the increase for his longest serving staff, Civil Service chief John Manzoni wrote “I do not believe there is a case for awarding higher sums than those for which the contract allows.”
He warned: “Legal advice supports this position, and lawyers have been clear that awarding a further month’s salary for special advisers in this position would constitute a payment above the contractual entitlement.”
“My strong advice is that we continue to abide by the provisions in their contracts of employment.
Mr Cameron’s principal private secretary, Simon Case, replied to Mr Manzoni that the then PM would issue the direction regarding aides who were reappointed after last year’s election, because: “He is conscious that the situation they find themselves in is through no fault of their own.”
“The termination of their employment has been sudden and unexpected, and he does not wish to exacerbate an already difficult and uncertain time for them by inferring that their long and loyal service is not fully recognised.”
The deal was done behind closed doors on Mr Cameron’s final day in office.
Last night Labour’s Jon Ashworth blasted: “In opposition David Cameron said he’d put a limit on the number of special advisers and protect the independence of the civil service.
“But despite overseeing a ballooning SpAds bill as PM one of his final acts in office was to overrule civil service advice and give massive pay-offs for his close aides.”
The Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office added: “Ordinary working people will struggle to see how this is justified.”
A spokesman for the Public and Commercial Services union said last night: “We’re appalled that Cameron would seek to reward his political staff in this way, as civil servants have been told they must face further cuts to their redundancy terms.
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They added: “It’s that kind of cronyism that gives politics a whiff of corruption and erodes public trust.”
Jonathan Isaby, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said last night: “The contracts for these advisers evidently took account of the possibility of sudden loss of employment and their terms were written accordingly.
“There is no case for increasing the pay-offs in this way.
“It is sad to see a Prime Minister who pledged to cut the cost of politics digging deeper into taxpayers’ pockets to fund bumper pay-offs for his staff as one of his final acts.”