Nick Clegg claims £100,000 in extra expenses from fund usually only given to former prime ministers
Money is supposed to be to help ex-deputy prime minister cover the cost of his public duties since leaving office
NICK Clegg has been given an expenses allowance worth up to £115,000 a year under an obscure scheme that was previously only for former prime ministers.
The former deputy prime minister and ex-Liberal Democrat leader, who is now his party’s Brexit spokesman, is allowed to claim the money to meet the cost of his public duties since leaving office.
He claimed £101,911 from the public duty cost allowance (PDCA) in the financial year 2015-16 and will be able to claim the allowance for five years.
This money comes on top of the cash he has been getting on the speaking circuit since resigning as Lib Dem leader after his party’s destruction in last year’s general election.
In February he received £36,660 for a speech to Barclays, last December he got £22,500 for addressing Goldman Sachs International and last August he was paid £22,000 for a speech he made to PepsiCo.
The grant, which is reviewed annually, is usually granted to former leaders to help cover the costs related to their public duties.
He has been accused of hypocrisy given his time trying to reduce the cost of politics during the years of the Coalition.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen told : “Where will this end?
“Will all MPs start getting grants to cover their costs for public duties after they leave parliament?”
And Taxpayers’ Alliance chief executive Jonathan Isaby demanded the Cabinet Office reveals who decided that Mr Clegg should be given the allowance.
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Mr Isaby said: “The Cabinet Office should reveal who sanctioned giving Nick Clegg this allowance so that taxpayers can hold them to account.
“Given that the government of which he was part was set on reducing the cost of politics he will struggle to avoid the accusation of hypocrisy.
“If no previous former deputy prime minister has been eligible for this bonanza, it is totally unjustifiable for Nick Clegg to be claiming this pot of taxpayers’ cash.”
A spokesman for Mr Clegg said: “Nick Clegg, as former deputy prime minister in the first coalition government in recent times, receives the PDCA in the same way as former prime ministers of single-party governments for exactly the same reasons.
“His earnings outside parliament are declared publicly and are significantly lower than those of former PMs.”
A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “It was agreed Mr Clegg should be paid [the allowance] for a short period after leaving office to help with some of the necessary costs and secretariat support associated with being in such a senior position in public life.”
The revelation comes as Nick Clegg’s wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez revealed there was no “friendship” between the Cleggs and the Camerons during the Coalition years.
She refused to cook for George Osborne, or even be in the house with him, when he first visited her husband to talk about policy.
In an interview with the about her new cookbook, she said she always refused to play the political game when her husband was in power.
And in the book she claims she used to take revenge on her husband’s rivals by feeding them extra hot chilli peppers.
