Liz Truss and Boris Johnson both received more than £18,000 each in compensation when they were forced to quit as Prime Minister.
Meanwhile ex-Chief Whip Chris Pincher, who resigned over revelations he had groped two men in the exclusive Carlton Club, was handed an almost £8,000 payout, documents released on Thursday revealed.
Ms Truss’s short-serving chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, who oversaw last year’s disastrous mini budget, got a £16,876 severance package when he was sacked.
When Rishi Sunak quit as Mr Johnson’s chancellor he got got the same payout, but returned the money to the Treasury.
MPs are entitled to taxpayer-funded severance payments, usually a quarter of their annual salary, when they resign from senior jobs.
The Treasury’s annual accounts also revealed that the controversial sacking of top civil servant Sir Tom Scholar cost the Government £457,000.
He was dismissed as the Treasury’s permanent secretary in September 2022, just as Mr Kwarteng took over as chancellor.
The move was criticised at the time given Sir Tom’s long experience at the department, and economists and former civil servants have subsequently said his dismissal contributed to the market’s negative reaction to the mini-budget.
Sir Tom received a £335,000 severance payment on his dismissal as permanent secretary, along with £122,000 in annual leave adjustments, wages in lieu of notice and other payments.
Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper described the pay offs as a “slap in the face for all those who have seen their mortgages soar because of Truss and Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-budget”.
“It is frankly insulting that whilst people struggle with the cost-of-living crisis, those responsible for their financial hardship are being showered with tens of thousands of pounds of tax-payers cash,” she added.
