Nandy and Frazer clash over severance pay for Truss and Kwarteng

The shadow levelling up, housing and communities secretary, Lisa Nandy, put forward an opposition day debate on severance pay for former ministers on Tuesday.

Former PM Liz Truss and former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng are due to receive thousands in severance pay after despite their short tenures. 

Lisa Nandy told the house: “Whose side are you on? Are you on the side of hard working families that are suffering for an economy that will set on fire, that are paying hundreds of pounds more through no fault of their own at a time when just getting by is already a struggle? Or are you on the side of the arsonists – the people who set fire to our economy and left working people to pay the price?”.

Defending severance pay for former ministers, specifically for Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, minister of state for housing Lucy Frazer said: “severance pay payments connected to the loss of ministerial office are defined in legislation that has been passed by Parliament and have been in effect for successive administrations. Ministerial changes and departures are part of the fabric of government, whole administrations experience and they are routine part of the operation of government”.