Woolas’s £13,000 pay-off

Former Labour ministers were handed a total of £1,051,202 in severance pay after the General Election.

The cash paid out to former Labour ministers was not based on their lengthof service but a flat fee of a payment equal to three months of their annual ministerial salary.

Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Phil Woolas, who was Labour’s Immigration Minister, received £13,000.

Mr Woolas said: “My salary as a minister was beyond anything I ever expected when I was a young man. Now being a minister is over and I have to pay the bills.

“I got a redundancy payment which is helping me to move house, which I am having to do as the rules have changed.

“I got £13,000, which is a lot of money and it is helping me adjust. I hope people recognise that I am not rich and I do not do this job for the money.”

The basic MPs salary is £64,766 and Mr Woolas received an additional £40,795 as a minister.