Laughing All The Way To The Bank: Who Says Politics Doesn't Pay?

Les May makes some interesting points in his recent article about pension inequality in the UK. Unlike Les, I am a 65-year-old man who won't get a State Retirement Pension (S.R.P.) until I'm almost 66-years old in September 2020. There was of course, another way of eliminating sex discrimination in retirement ages. The state retirement age for men could have been reduced to 60 in line with women, but this wasn't likely to happen. The full state UK pension is currently £168.60 and one of the lowest paid pensions of all the EU member states. 

Compared to some of the pensions paid to British and EU politicians it is derisory. According to campaigners from Open Europe, Neil and Glenys Kinnock, amassed a total of five publicly funded pensions, worth £4.4m, allowing them to retire on £183,000 a year. The campaign group estimated that the Kinnock's, claimed around £10m in European earnings from allowances, wages, and pension entitlements over a 15-year period. 

It was the Conservative Prime Minister, John Major, who put Kinnock forward for the job as a European Commissioner, after stating publicly that Kinnock "wasn't fit to run a whelk stall." Kinnock's wife joined him later on the EU gravy train.

An article that appeared on WalesOnline in 2013, gives the full details:-

Laughing All The Way To The Bank

"NEIL and Glenys Kinnock came under fire from critics last night as details of their

estimated £10m European earnings were calculated by a pressure group."

"Campaigners from Open Europe, which argues for greater transparency, calculated the pair’s multi-million-pound earnings from allowances, wages and pension entitlements over a 15-year period.

It worked out their salaries and perks included:

A total of £775,000 in wages for Mrs Kinnock and £1.85m for her husband, adding up to £2,625,000;
Allowances for Mrs Kinnock’s staff and office costs of £2.9m;

A £64,564 “entertainment allowance” for Lord Kinnock;

A total of five publicly-funded pensions, worth £4.4m, allowing them to retire on £183,000 a year;

A housing allowance that allowed them both to claim accommodation costs even though, as a married couple, they lived in the same house in the Belgian capital between 1995 and 2004.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign manager Susie Squire yesterday attacked the scale of the earnings.

She said: “It does seem an awful lot, but anyone who has experience of the Brussels gravy train will be able to believe these figures.

“There are lots of eurocrats on massive pensions and massive salaries living the five-star lifestyle at taxpayers’ expense.

“Brussels isn’t at all transparent. It’s very difficult to get information about money which is being spent in the first place.”

Ukip’s newly-elected Wales MEP John Bufton said he was “appalled” at the amounts paid.

“It’s quite incredible and unbelievable,” he added. “The Welsh public will see this as an absolute farce.

“And the thought that Gordon Brown is so desperate he has to bring in Glenys Kinnock shows the whole thing just stinks.”

Asked by the Western Mail what he wanted to say about yesterday’s revelations, former European Union Transport Commissioner Lord Kinnock, 67, replied: “Nothing, absolutely nothing.”

Quizzed as to whether the figures reported were accurate, the former MP for Islwyn, who led the Labour Party to two general election defeats before quitting in 1992 then spending 10 years in Brussels, said: “I’m not making any form of response.”

Earlier this month, Mrs Kinnock, 64, quit as an MEP after 15 years. Last Sunday Labour lost one of its two European Parliament seats in Wales to Ukip as Labour came second to the Conservatives in Wales, capping a disastrous election performance.

Mrs Kinnock is to be given a life peerage and appointed to succeed Caroline Flint who resigned as Europe Minister, saying she was not content to be Gordon Brown’s “female window dressing”.

Yesterday, a spokeswoman for the Kinnocks, whose property portfolio includes a £815,000 home in Islington, North London and a £700,000 house in Peterston- super-Ely, outside Cardiff, disputed just one of Open Europe’s figures – a “transition allowance” Lord Kinnock received when he left Brussels in 2004, worth £355,143 at today’s exchange rate. She said the true figure was lower, but refused to reveal it.

Open Europe estimated Mrs Kinnock’s travel costs based on MEPs’ average.

It estimated she spent £1,179,482 for travel between Britain and the Continent over 15 years, and £45,777 for travel outside the EU.

During 10 years in Brussels, Lord Kinnock automatically received residential allowances totalling £276,962.

On Lord Kinnock’s income and perks, the spokeswoman said: “All of these details are a matter of public record.”

Based on Open Europe’s calculations, they will receive a combined annual pension of about £183,000.

According to the Mail on Sunday, the think-tank said Mrs Kinnock can expect £67,835 a year from two pensions as an MEP: one a £19,370 basic pension and the other £48,465 from the European Parliament’s Additional Voluntary Pension Scheme which sees the taxpayer paying £2 for every £1 put into the pot by MEPs.

Her new ministerial pay package will be used to top up contributions to the basic MEP pension. She already claims a teacher’s pension.

Lord Kinnock receives an ex-MP’s pension, thought to be £32,000 a year.

He has a second pension as a former EU Commissioner, worth more than £80,000.

The Kinnocks have also built up a valuable property portfolio, with homes in London and Wales.

In 1992, they bought a house in Ealing, West London, for £445,000. They sold it in January 2007 for £1,515,000 and bought a smart three-storey property.

Other members of the family have also benefited from Europe. Son Stephen’s first job after Cambridge University was as a research assistant to an MEP.

His Danish wife Helle – tipped as a future prime minister of Denmark – sat as an MEP from 1999 to 2004, while the Kinnocks’ daughter Rachel was her mother’s research assistant at the European Parliament."