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Former energy secretary Chris Huhne is to receive a £17,000 payoff after quitting the Cabinet to fight charges of perverting the course of justice, it has been confirmed.Ministers are entitled to severance pay equivalent to three months of their ministerial salary when they leave the Government. However, the money is not paid to them automatically, but must be claimed by the MP in question.Mr Huhne has come under pressure from opponents not to claim the tax-free payment, after becoming the first government minister in living memory to be forced out of office by a criminal prosecution.But the Cabinet Office said: "We can confirm that, following his resignation from the Cabinet, Chris Huhne will receive a severance payment of three months of his ministerial salary."Before his resignation on February 3, he received annual ministerial pay of £68,827 on top of his £65,738 salary as MP for Eastleigh.He denies perverting the course of justice by asking his then wife to take speeding penalty points onto her driving licence. Mr Huhne and his ex-wife Vicky Pryce are due to appear at Southwark Crown Court on March 2.
Huhne was born in an affluent section of West London to businessman Peter Paul-Huhne and actress Ann Murray, who had been the voice of the speaking clock.] He was educated at the fee-paying Westminster School. His family name was Paul-Huhne and he was known all through his school years as Christopher Paul-Huhne. At Oxford, he simplified his name to "Chris Huhne".His education continued at the Sorbonne, Paris where he obtained a certificate in French Language and Civilisation[citation needed], and Magdalen College, Oxford where he was a scholar (Demy). At Oxford, he edited the student magazine Isis, served on the executive of the Oxford University Labour Club, and achieved a first-class degree in PPE (philosophy, politics and economics). Huhne was active in student politics supporting the Labour Party.1973 student articleA news story in The Sunday Times on 21 October 2007 said an article credited to Huhne had appeared in the University of Oxford's Isis magazine in February 1973 saying that drugs such as opium, LSD and amphetamines were an “accepted facet of our society”. In response to questions by The Times about his 1973 pronouncement, Huhne responded “To be honest I don’t have any memory of it,” saying he was entitled to a private life before politics. The issue about the 1973 article continued in the Daily Mail and the Sun. In an interview published on the Kent News website on 10 November 2007, Huhne said, “I clearly regret the views and I don’t agree with those views at all. I was a teenager and I’m now 53 and I think all of us do tend to move on in life.” Career before ParliamentBefore embarking on his political career, he was a City entrepreneur. He told The Independent in 2008: "I don't claim that I'm in other than a very happy position compared with most people, because, having spent a bit of time in the City before I was elected, being able to make a bit of money while I was there, I have a cushion." He started a company named Sovereign Ratings IBCA in 1994 that tried to "scientifically measure the risks of investing in different countries". In 1997 he became managing director of Fitch IBCA, and from 1999 to 2003 was vice-chairman of Fitch Ratings.Huhne was an economic commentator for The Guardian, The Independent and The Independent on Sunday. He was the business editor of The Independent and The Independent on Sunday during its investigations into Robert Maxwell's fraud on the Mirror group pension fund. He started in as an undercover freelance reporter in India during Mrs Gandhi's emergency when western journalists had been expelled. He also worked for the Liverpool Daily Post and Liverpool Echo and The Economist. He won both the junior and senior Wincott awards for financial journalist of the year (in 1980 and 1989 respectively).
Can anyone think of another job where you get a payout if you resign because you are facing criminal charges ?
