Angela Rayner has received nearly £17,000 as part of a “golden goodbye” payout after she was forced to quit as a government minister.
The former deputy prime minister and Housing Secretary stepped down in September, admitting that she failed to pay £40,000 in stamp duty when buying a seaside flat in Hove.
She resigned from her post following growing pressure over the scandal as she was found to have broken the ministerial code.
A spokesperson for Ms Rayner told the Daily Mail on Tuesday she automatically received a £16,876 severance payment in September.
It comes as Labour changed the system in October so that any ministers who leave office following a “serious breach” of the code will be denied a payout under rules.
The change in rules means it will be for the Prime Minister to decide whether the rule-breaking in question meets that threshold.
Ms Rayner’s spokesperson told the Mail said the new regime would not have made a difference to her “automatic eligibility” for the payout because, although she breached the code, it was not deemed “serious”.
Ms Rayner’s was found to have acted with integrity, her spokesperson added.
Tory MP Neil O’Brien told the Mail she was a “total hypocrite” and demanded she be stripped of the payment.
He said: “Having criticised these kinds of payments when she was in opposition, she now wants to keep the money now that it is her getting the boot.”
Ministerial standards adviser Sir Laurie Magnus probed widely reported allegations about the Ashton-under-Lyne MP’s property ownership at the start of September.
He said he believed she had acted in “good faith” but that “the responsibility of any taxpayer for reporting their tax returns and settling their liabilities rests ultimately with themselves”.
The ethics watchdog found Ms Rayner’s failure to settle her full stamp duty liability, along with the fact that this was only established following media scrutiny of her tax affairs, led him to consider the ministerial code had been breached.
