Rayner rules out giving back £17,000 severance payment

Ms Rayner received the payment after resigning in September 2025 from her role as housing secretary, deputy prime minister, and deputy Labour Party leader over a row about her tax affairs.

HMRC has since cleared her of wrongdoing, and she returned to Government on Monday to oversee housing once again.

She has now said that she will not repay the £16,876 ministerial severance payment.

When in opposition, she was a fierce critic of Conservative ministers who received the lump sum – the equivalent of a quarter of an annual ministerial salary – for only a few weeks’ work during the chaotic period of multiple reshuffles between the premierships of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

Asked if she would return the money, she 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.

“But on the Conservatives who took their severance, we’re talking weeks. Some of them were even a very short period of the time, and I think that chaos and that wider point about delivering for the British people is what we’re focused on, is not having that chaos, not looking like we’re in it for ourselves, but actually delivering on the promises that we made in 2024 in that general election.”

A lump sum, equivalent of 25% of the annual ministerial salary, is payable when a minister stops holding office. Departing ministers who are aged over 65 or are reappointed within three weeks do not qualify.

Ms Rayner resigned as deputy prime minister and housing secretary in September 2025 after failing to pay enough tax on her £800,000 flat in Hove, which led to her receiving the exit payout.