𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

A Cabinet Office minister has insisted he shares “the moral outrage” over Lord Peter Mandelson retaining his £75,000 payout after being sacked as ambassador to the US.

A day after the sum was revealed in Government files, Nick Thomas-Symonds told Sky News: “I frankly share the moral outrage that Peter Mandelson is still in possession of that £75,000.

“Now you can look at the documents, you can see on a value for money basis why that decision was made. There was an original request for £547,000 that was negotiated down to £75,000…

“But from a moral point of view, it is incredibly difficult to even think that that money is still being retained.

“So what I would say is, do the decent thing, do the honourable thing, donate that money to charity. And I would suggest perhaps a charity supporting victims might be appropriate.”