THURROCK'S MP has welcomed government plans to scrap ministerial pay-offs for short term political service – with her predecessor named as an example of worst practice.

Labour has announced it will be ending "the farce that saw Tories including Dame Jackie Doyle-Price take thousands of pounds in pay-offs after serving as ministers for just weeks."

 The government says it will take action to 'clean up politics' by establishing a new Ethics and Integrity Commission. It is also introducing new rules to curb the eligibility for ministerial pay-offs.

£253,720 was paid in severance to 35 outgoing Tory ministers who had been in post for fewer than six months under the chaos of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss in 2022. Some were in their jobs for as little as 37 days.

One was Dame Jackie Doyle-Price, former MP for Thurrock, who received a payout of £7,920 after spending just 50 days as Business Minister in September and October 2022 under Liz Truss.

Current Thurrock MP Jen Craft has welcomed the government initiative saying: "While the Tories were bankrupting Thurrock council and crashing our economy, public money was carelessly spent on absurd ministerial payoffs.

"As a local resident I know how angry our community feel about how poorly our money has been spent. People in Thurrock deserve to know that every pound of taxpayer money is being used wisely, not picking up the bill for our former MP's severance payment after just 50 days in the job. 

"Ending this farce is an important step toward restoring trust in politics, cleaning up the sleaze and scandal of the last 14 years."

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