Golden goodbyes for David Cameron’s advisers could cost taxpayer almost £1m after former PM changed payoff rules
Overruling Whitehall mandarins will see cronies get bumper severance packages in resignation honours list
THERESA MAY is under huge pressure to scrap resignation honours lists after it was revealed golden goodbyes for David Cameron's advisers could cost the taxpayer almost £1million.
The former PM has been blasted for changing the rules on redundancy payments for his former aides, which will see his cronies get bumper severance packages.
He overruled Whitehall mandarins so that the two-dozen of his allies who were awarded gongs will get six months' salary instead of the usual four and a half months.
This will push the total bill for advisers like Gabby Bertin and Liz Sugg, who were made peers in Mr Cameron’s controversial list, along with ministers like George Osborne, could top £900,000.
The figure is about £200,000 higher than it would have been under the old rules.
Mr Cameron, who is on holiday after leaving Downing Street last month, rewarded Craig Oliver, his former director of communications, with a knighthood, and made Ed Llewellyn, his chief of staff, a lord.
But the pair are both in line for £70,000 severance pay-offs courtesy of the taxpayer, prompting calls for the system to be overhauled.
Whitehall's standards watchdog, Lord Bew, said such lists were "increasingly questionable”, but said the ex-PM’s "ludicrously long list" was down to his "warm" nature.
The peer said the idea of Prime Ministers handing out honours to friends when they leave office is “over”, thanks to the outcry over Mr Cameron’s list.
Speaking to the in a personal capacity he said: “There are distinguished public servants on this list, but even so I think this has to be the last one given the public outcry.
“The last two prime ministers before David Cameron haven’t done it. I would be amazed if Theresa May does one.
"I just think it’s over now. If there was another list, it would provoke another heated row.”
Lord Bew also appeared to hit out at those who enter the House of Lords but fail to contribute, saying: “A peerage is a job, it is not an honour.
“When I joined the Lords I was told we were on route to becoming that. We haven’t progressed as quickly along that path as I hoped.”
It comes as the new PM Mrs May aims to draw a line under the row by planning for a more accountable honours system in the future, after sharp criticism over the decision to give individuals such as Isabel Spearman, Samantha Cameron's stylist, gongs.