Exclusive: Wes Streeting Will Not Be Paid For His First 3 Months As Defence Secretary

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/wes-streeting/">Wes Streeting will not receive a salary for his first three months as defence secretary, HuffPost UK can reveal.

The cabinet minister landed the plum role in new prime minister https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/andy-burnham/">Andy Burnham’s government on Monday.

It came just two months after he https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/wes-streeting-resigns-from-government_uk_6a056bc3e4b0def65bfbeb8f">resigned as health secretary in protest at https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/keir-starmer/">Keir Starmer’s leadership.

That entitled him to a pay-off of £16,876, which is equivalent to three months of a cabinet minister’s salary.

His speedy return to government raised questions about whether he would hand back that lump sum.

However, HuffPost UK has learned that he will instead not take his ministerial salary during his first three months at the Ministry of Defence.

According to the House of Commons library, ministers who are re-appointed to another government role within three months of standing down “will be expected to forgo their salary until the full three-month period has elapsed”.

However, that is not mandatory, meaning they could take their salary from day one if they wanted to.

Former deputy prime minister https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/angela-rayner/">Angela Rayner was re-appointed housing secretary by Burnham, 10 months after she was forced to resign amid a row over her tax affairs.

HMRC has since cleared her of any wrongdoing.

On Thursday, she rejected calls from the Tories that she hand back her severance pay, even though she is under no obligation to do so.

Rayner said: “No, my severance payment was given to me at the time.

I’d worked in Government for a period of time, and then I came out of government for just under a year, I think is the timetable, and I’ll be delivering in government again.”

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