Taxpayers will be handed a hefty bill after Boris Johnson inspired a slew of ministerial resignation letters before finally announcing his intention to resign from Downing Street.
Ministers are legally allowed a golden handshake of three months' salary, meaning the brigade returning to the Conservative backbenches - including the likes of former chancellor Rishi Sunak and ex-health secretary Sajid Javid - could be in line for five-figure payouts.
With five Cabinet ministers walking out of Mr Johnson’s administration and more than 20 ministers lower down the chain doing the same, Tory MPs could end up doing well financially out of the chaos the Prime Minister caused by refusing to budge until the eleventh hour.
How much do ministers get paid when they resign?
Senior Labour MP Chris Bryant, chair of the House of Commons’ ethics committee, said ministers can expect a three-month pay-off when they quit office.
He tweeted on July 7: “Ministers get three months salary as a loss of office payment when they resign. Has anybody added up the bill yet?”
According to a Commons Library briefing, the comments stack up, with the terms laid out in the Ministerial and Other Salaries Act 1975.
A Commons paper published in 2011 stated: “Ministers and other paid office holders who receive a ministerial salary are entitled to a severance payment when they leave office.
“Ministers who leave office are granted a severance payment, which generally equals three months of their annual ministerial salary.”
Reports have suggested any former ministers given new jobs within three weeks of leaving office will not be entitled to the severance - a policy that could apply to those accepting positions in Mr Johnson's expected reshuffle as he looks to remain in place until being replaced in the autumn.
A string of parliamentary private secretaries (PPSs) - dubbed the “bag carriers” for ministers - have also resigned over the Prime Minister’s tumultuous leadership.
It is not clear whether severance would be due for these positions, given they are unpaid roles.
The financial impact of Boris Johnson’s ministerial resignations
Ministers get paid extra on top of their £84,000 per year earnings for being an MP.
A Cabinet minister is eligible for an add-on of £71,673 per year, according to a Commons Library paper from 2021/22.
However, they claim less, pocketing an additional £67,505 annually.
That means Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid will be entitled to almost £17,000 each for quitting.
Former Welsh secretary Simon Hart, former Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis and ex-education secretary Michelle Donelan - who was only in the post for a day - will be able to receive the same amount in compensation.
The five Cabinet exits alone will cost taxpayers £84,381 - and that is before the rest of the ministerial pay-offs are taken into account.
Ministers of state are eligible to be paid an extra £34,367 annually, but in reality claim less, at £31,680.
Each quitting junior minister, such as schools minister Robin Walker and justice minister Victoria Atkins, will be eligible to cash in a final cheque of almost £8,000 as part of their goodbye.
Given more than 20 have quit, the bill for ministers of state leaving will climb to at least £160,000.
On top of that, former solicitor general Alex Chalk, one of the early figures to go, claims a salary of £57,962, putting his severance package at almost £15,500.
Labour is calling on Tories who have left their front bench jobs this week not to take the golden handshake, but Paymaster General Michael Ellis told MPs renumeration was "set in statute".
This story was amended after publication after initially incorrectly claiming that the prime minister is not entitled to severance pay on resigning due to having “preferential pension arrangements”. This is no longer the case as the rules were changed in 2013.
