Damian Green to pocket £17,000 golden goodbye after being sacked from Cabinet over porn claims
3 min read
Damian Green will receive a taxpayer-funded golden goodbye of nearly £17,000 after being sacked for lying over a porn scandal, it has emerged.
Cabinet Office rules state that senior ministers who lose their jobs are entitled to a quarter of their final salary as a pay-off.
As Mr Green's annual wage for being First Secretary of State was £67,505, that means the one-off payment he is entitled to is £16,876.25.
Labour MP Neil Coyle told PoliticsHome: "Any minister sacked for misconduct should be subject to the same rules as everyone else, so there should be no payout.
"If an ordinary worker was sacked they would not be entitled to anything, and the same should apply to Cabinet ministers."
Fellow Labour MP John Mann said: "The public will be aghast at a man who lied in such a senior role getting paid more than many people earn in a whole year."
Alex Wild of the TaxPayers' Alliance said: "In the real world, people who are caught lying to their bosses aren't given the option to resign and pocket a huge payout, they are sacked and don't get a penn.
"There is, however, a different rule for politicians who are handsomely rewarded by taxpayers for their disgraces. It's no wonder the country is almost £2 trillion in debt when the government thinks this is an appropriate way to spend money."
Priti Patel, who resigned as International Development Secretary last month over secret meetings with Israeli officials, was also entitled to the big-money payout.
However, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, who quit a week earlier over allegations of sexual impropriety, received nothing as he is over 65.
Mr Green was asked to step down as First Secretary of State by the Prime Minister after he was found to have misled a Cabinet office inquiry into claims that porn was found on his Commons computer in 2008.
The investigation found it was "inaccurate and misleading" for him to claim police had not told him porn had been found on the computer. However, Mr Green has insisted that he did not download or view the pornography himself.
The Cabinet Office investigation also looked into allegations of inappropriate behaviour made by Mr Green towards Tory activist Kate Maltby.
The probe was unable to make a verdict on the claims - which he denies - but said her account was "plausible".
In his resignation letter to Theresa May, Mr Green said: "From the outset I have been clear that I did not download or view pornography on my parliamentary computers. I accept that I should have been clear in my press statements that police lawyers talked to my lawyers about the pornography on the computers, and that the police raised it with me in a subsequent phone call in 2013.
"I apologise that my statements were misleading on this point."
Mr Green went on: "I deeply regret the distress caused to Kate Maltby following her article about me and the reaction to it. I do not recognise the events she described in her article, but I clearly made her feel uncomfortable and for that I apologise."
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