There is again a mad rush for the post of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with intense lobbying and campaigns having started for the keys to 10 Downing Street, and why not, the chair brings along huge benefits.
Just see, Liz Truss quit her post as Britain’s Prime Minister just 45 days into the job, but even such a short stint will enable her to claim expenses of up to £115,000 ($129,000) a year for the rest of her life, reports CNN. It’s a staggering amount anyways, and that too when she put the UK economy in the doldrums with her economically-suicidal measures which she had to revert within days in major embarrassing policy U-turns for the party.
Truss, who presided over failed fiscal plans and a deeply polarized party in her disastrous six-week stint in office, also becomes the shortest-serving PM in British history after she announced her resignation on Thursday.
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Her speech has triggered a leadership race that will lead to the appointment of the UK’s fifth Conservative prime minister in just over six years.
Despite the shortness of her tenure, she is entitled to receive payments under the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA), a government-regulated programme introduced in 1990 to “assist former Prime Ministers still active in public life”, reports CNN.
The allowance reimburses former prime ministers for office and secretarial costs arising from their public duties.
“Payments are made only to meet the actual cost of continuing to fulfil public duties,” says the UK government website.
“All former Prime Ministers are eligible to draw on the PDCA,” it adds.
The PDCA has been capped at £115,000 a year since 2011 and is reviewed annually by the sitting prime minister.
Former leaders are also entitled to claim an allowance toward their staff pension costs, which is limited to 10% of the PDCA.
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From 2020 to 2021, former prime ministers Theresa May, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and John Major were all reimbursed by varying amounts, according to the Cabinet Office’s Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21, as per CNN.
However, opposition politicians and trade unions are urging Truss to decline the publicly funded annual allowance, as Britons grapple with a cost-of-living crisis resulting from soaring energy prices and inflation at a 40-year high.
When asked about Truss’ entitlement to the allowance, Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said “she should turn it down.”
“She’s done 44 days in office,” he told ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” on Friday.
“She’s not really entitled to it, she should turn it down and not take it.”
On Twitter, one user wrote: “While people are struggling to pay the bills and keep the lights on, Liz Truss will receive a cushy £115,000 yearly allowance – for the rest of her life, and funded by the taxpayer – for 6 weeks of disaster as PM.”
Downing Street had not responded to CNN’s request for comment on whether Truss will accept the allowance.
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