Penny Mordaunt claimed taxpayers' cash to have shoe rack removed from her office

Penny Mordaunt claimed taxpayers' money to have her shoe rack removed from her ministerial office when she lost her seat at the General Election.

Records show the former Paymaster General claimed £642 for a sprinter van and driver to collect “19x boxes, plus a shoe rack” from her office in the Houses of Parliament on July 8th, four days after the election.

MPs are entitled to expenses to ‘wind up’ their offices after losing their seat. The expenses were properly declared and there’s no

Ms Mordaunt admitted to wearing “fluffy slippers” at the King’s Coronation - until the last minute when she slipped on a pair of heels before starting her role carrying the Sword of State

Since losing her seat at the general election, Ms Mordaunt has taken a job as chair of SubSea craft, a Portsmouth tech firm which makes mini submarines for tourists.

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Ms Mordaunt was widely considered to be a leadership contender - until losing her seat in Portsmouth North to Labour by fewer than 1,000 votes.

She was among the most recognisable Tory MPs, having played key roles in the King's Coronation ceremony and appearing on celebrity diving game show Splash!

Some 350 MPs left office after ’s landslide - the most of any in the last 50 years. The (Ipsa) said nearly all of the £52.8m was spent on helping former MPs leave offices and new MPs set up theirs - including a third of the cash going on redundancy payments for staff. It compares to £11.1m being spent in 2019 and 5.9m in 2017.

According Ipsa, 2,373 people lost their jobs as a result of the election. This included 2,023 people who worked for MPs who were effectively made redundant after 218 sitting MPs lost their seats and a further 132 stood down. In 2019, 460 staff members lost their jobs.

An average of £35,200 was spent per MP on redundancy payments to both departing MPs and their staff. MPs who left office were also eligible for a winding-up payment of four months’ salary. Since April 2024, the basic annual salary of a MP has been set at £91,346.