Labour has joined calls for Liz Truss to be barred from receiving the annual payment of up to £115,000 she will be entitled to as a former Prime Minister.
The Public Duties Cost Allowance (PDCA) is designed to help former Prime Ministers fund things such as office and secretarial costs after public life.
Ms Truss, the UK’s shortest-ever serving No10 resident, is set to receive the yearly perk despite serving just 44 days as Britain’s leader.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said “she should turn it down and not take it”.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I think that’s the right thing to do. She’s done 44 days in office, she’s not really entitled to it.”
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said it would be wrong for Ms Truss to accept the allowance.”Most people have to work at least 35 years to get a full state pension,” he told LBC.
“I think working 45 days shouldn’t give you a pension that is many, many times what ordinary people out there get after a lifetime of work.”
Trade union representing civil servants have also hit out at perk for ex-PMs during a cost-of-living crisis.
Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said: “At a time when one in five civil servants are using food banks and 35 per cent have skipped meals because they have no food, it’s grotesque that Liz Truss can walk away with what is effectively a £115,000 bonus.”
The PDCA, which was introduced in 1991 by the then cabinet secretary, Sir Robin Butler, after Margaret Thatcher’s resignation, is designed to assist former leaders still active in public life.
They are entitled to claim for necessary office and secretarial costs arising from their position in public life.
Last year, John Major and Tony Blair claimed the maximum allowance, Gordon Brown claimed £114,712, David Cameron claimed £113,423 and Theresa May, who is still an MP, £57,832. (Standard)