Mandelson in line for EU pay-out

[dipsydoodle]

Business Secretary Peter Mandelson is set to receive a pay-out after resigning from the European Commission to rejoin the cabinet.

He will continue to receive taxpayer-funded EU pay worth £234,000 over three years - in addition to his annual ministerial salary of £104,386.

The Conservatives said the details of the "golden goodbye" would anger voters in the UK.

Mr Mandelson will be ennobled on Monday to allow him to return to the cabinet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7666482.stm

We'll at least he shouldn't need to lie on mortgage applications any more. :sarcasm:

The scandals that brought Peter Mandelson down twice before :

In his first incarnation, as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, he lasted less than five months in 1998.

He was undone on that occasion by the revelation that he had bought a fashionable home in Notting Hill, with the help of an interest-free £373,000 loan from his millionaire ministerial colleague Geoffrey Robinson.

When Mr Mandelson filled in a Britannia Building Society mortgage form to buy the house in 1996 he had failed to mention the loan. Nor did it appear on his entry in the Commons Register of Interests.

After joining the Cabinet he also did not bring the loan to the attention of his Permanent Secretary, even though Mr Robinson's business links were at that time under investigation by Mr Mandelson's own department.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/3130348/The-scandals-that-brought-Peter-Mandelson-down-twice-before.html