Last year, the bill to keep the offices of ex-leaders ticking over reached £570,000
IT IS EASY to feel sorry for Theresa May, whose three-year spell as prime minister was made thoroughly miserable by headbanging Tory backbenchers and cunning Europeans. But not that sorry. Because Mrs May will join the growing list of former prime ministers who are entitled to claim up to £115,000 a year for the rest of their lives.
Initially, she, along with all former prime ministers, received £29,800 a year; over its first decade, the total cost of the scheme amounted to about £150,000 annually. By last year the bill had reached £570,000. Including Mrs May, five former leaders are now eligible. A former deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, was mysteriously given the allowance for five years after departing the coalition government in 2015.
Former heads of government in other countries are also entitled to such perks. Americas’ former presidents can draw an annual salary of $207,800, equivalent to that of a cabinet member; they also get generous support for their offices. German presidents get a lifetime of “honorary pay”; French presidents enjoy a furnished apartment.
Yet Britain’s scheme is oddly murky. PDCA allowances are now listed separately in Cabinet Office accounts, with footnotes showing the totals claimed by each former prime minister . But the precise details of each former leader’s spending are lacking. Few MPs, however, seem to care. A motion in Parliament calling for the allowance to be brought under the audit of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority in 2012 got just three signatures.
Following the parliamentary expenses scandal in 2009, MPs were required to disclose the details of their allowance claims to IPSA. It seems reasonable to expect the same of former prime ministers’ use of public money. So far over £7m of taxpayer-money has been spent on them without a single receipt open to public scrutiny. And if Boris Johnson quickly falls victim to the brutal politics of leaving the EU, the PDCA could acquire yet another claimant.
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