Dozens of MSPs who are leaving Holyrood are receiving a substantial boost to their ‘golden goodbye’ payments, thanks to a pay rise implemented just days before they stood down. An unprecedented 42 MSPs have decided not to seek re-election in Thursday’s Scottish Parliament election.
Unlike most employees, who receive nothing when they resign, these departing parliamentarians are entitled to generous ‘resettlement grants’ funded by taxpayers. The MSPs officially stepped down when the Scottish Parliament was dissolved on April 9, but a pay rise came into effect just eight days earlier, on April 1, adding thousands to their farewell payments.
Former First Ministers Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf will each depart with an eye-watering £77,711, which is £3,211 more than they would have received without the last-minute salary increase. The highest payout goes to the outgoing Presiding Officer, Green MSP Alison Johnstone, who will receive a staggering £106,911. Without the pay rise, her golden goodbye would have been £11,595 less.
How Resettlement Grants Are Calculated
Resettlement grants are intended to help MSPs readjust to life outside politics. They are based on the number of years served at Holyrood, plus additional payments for government ministers. The grants are calculated as one month’s pay for every year served as an MSP, with a minimum guaranteed payout of six months (amounting to £38,855) and a maximum of one year’s salary (now £77,711). Junior ministers who step down receive an extra £9,147, while Cabinet Secretaries get an additional boost of £14,600.
Thanks to the pay rise, former Finance Secretary Shona Robison and Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop will each see their golden goodbyes jump by £7,399 to £92,311. This additional drain on the public purse comes at a time when many households across Scotland are feeling the squeeze from higher rates of Scottish income tax, soaring council tax, and increased energy bills.
Criticism from Taxpayer Groups
Critics have slammed the ‘sneaky’ pay rise that benefits the mass exodus of MSPs. Jonathan Eida, researcher at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers will be absolutely sickened to see Holyrood’s departing politicians laughing all the way to the bank, bankrolled by a sneaky last-minute pay rise. In the real world, nobody gets a massive golden goodbye simply for quitting their job. To ram through a pay hike just eight days before parliament dissolves is a shameless insult to hard-working Scots and proves that the Holyrood gravy train is completely derailed.’ He added: ‘Taxpayers are sick and tired of funding these bloated resettlement grants. It’s high time this system was overhauled.’
The total bill for resettlement grants for the 42 departing MSPs now amounts to £2.78 million. Among them, 25 SNP MSPs are stepping down, including four Cabinet Secretaries and three junior ministers from John Swinney’s government. Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes is also among the quitting MSPs. In addition to Ms Robison and Ms Hyslop, Holyrood’s Deputy Presiding Officer, SNP MSP Annabelle Ewing, plus parliamentary business minister Graeme Dey and business minister Richard Lochhead, are all quitting. Thanks to the pay rise, each will now receive £86,858.
Other senior figures in Mr Swinney’s government who are standing down include Economy Secretary and Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, who will receive a payout of £79,359, as will Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon. Among those who will receive a full year’s pay, now worth £77,711, is former Health Secretary Michael Matheson, who resigned after claiming £11,000 in expenses for roaming charges incurred by his sons watching football on a parliamentary iPad during a family Christmas holiday in Morocco. He was caught lying after claiming the bill resulted from using the iPad for constituency business.
Former First Minister and SNP leader Ms Sturgeon will also collect a full year’s salary. After stepping down as First Minister in March 2023, she received an ‘officeholder resettlement grant’ of £64,378. Later, she received an advance of £300,000 from a publisher for her memoirs, which she wrote while continuing to collect her salary as a backbench MSP.
Meanwhile, six Tory MSPs are quitting, as well as five Labour, one LibDem, and five independents. The overall bill for golden goodbyes may well be boosted further, as any MSPs who contest the election but lose their seats will also be entitled to payouts.
Pay Rise Details
The 4.3 per cent pay rise for MSPs, implemented from April 1, was signed off earlier this year by the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body, the cross-party group responsible for running Holyrood. At the time, Jackson Carlaw, the Tory member of the group, said that MSPs’ pay had not kept up with inflation and that, despite the rise, would remain lower than the salaries of MPs and members of the Welsh Senedd. He told Holyrood’s finance committee: ‘Over the period 2021-22 to 2026-27, MSP pay is lagging 8.2 percentage points behind the consumer price index, which equates to around £5,300 over the period. Had members’ salaries risen in line with inflation, they would now be £83,000 rather than £77,711.’
MPs at Westminster are currently paid £93,904. Members of the Welsh Senedd are to receive a pay rise that will take their salary to £79,817. However, unlike at Holyrood, the pay rise will not be introduced until after this month’s Welsh elections.
