More than eight in 10 Britons say Liz Truss should NOT get the £115,000-a-year ‘public duty’ allowance for ex-PMs after serving just 49 days in Downing Street
- Liz Truss became the shortest-serving British PM when she left after just 49 days
- Ms Truss entitled to £115,000 a year in ‘public duty costs allowance’ as an ex-PM
- Poll for MailOnline found public overwhelmingly say she shouldn’t take the cash
Britons overwhelmingly do not believe Liz Truss should get the £115,000-a-year allowance for ex-PMs to run an office.
A poll for MailOnline found 84 per cent do not support Ms Truss receiving the ‘public duty’ benefit after serving just 49 days in Downing Street.
Just 9 per cent think she should be entitled to the money, according to the research by Redfield & Wilton Strategies.
Another 7 per cent said they were not sure.
A poll for MailOnline found 84 per cent do not support Ms Truss receiving the ‘public duty’ benefit after serving just 49 days in Downing Street
Despite becoming the UK’s shortest-serving PM when she handed over to Rishi Sunak last week, Ms Truss is still in line for severance pay to the tune of £18,860.
All ex-premiers are able to claim up to £115,000-a-year in Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA), for costs such as a secretary and official engagements.
They must provide evidence of valid expenditure to access the funds.
Opposition parties have urged her reject the allowance and hand back any payout, declaring that she has ‘not earned the right’ to keep it.
Nick Clegg also controversially received the allowance for several years after serving as deputy PM in the Coalition.
Ms Truss is said to be ‘taking a break’ from frontline politics after her resignation, although she remains as an MP.
Michael Gove today offered an extraordinary apology to the British public for the Conservatives putting Ms Truss in charge for 49 days.
The Levelling Up Secretary, who was a vocal critic of the tax-slashing plans that sent markets into meltdown, said he understood people’s anger that the government had taken a ‘holiday from reality’.
Ms Truss was a long way behind the next shortest premiership, that of Tory statesman George Canning, who spent 118 full days as PM in 1827 before dying in office.
Ms Truss would have needed to stay on until January 3 to meet that mark.
Some PMs have had shorter terms, but gone on to take charge in No10 again.
:: Redfield & Wilton Strategies surveyed 1,500 eligible voters in GB online on October 25-26. The results were weighted to represent the wider population.
Ms Truss became the UK’s shortest-serving PM when she handed over to Rishi Sunak last week
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