Overview

• Nadine Dorries, former Tory MP and Cabinet minister, has pledged to return £16,876 she mistakenly received as severance pay.
• The severance pay, which should not have been given to Dorries due to her age, was for her tenure as culture secretary under Boris Johnson.
• Dorries, who turned 65 several months before leaving her job, learned of the error via email and promised to repay the money.
• Labour has recently proposed reforms to ministerial severance pay rules, including linking payouts to time spent in office and suspending severance for ministers under investigation.
• Nearly £1 million was spent on ministerial severance pay during last year's political turmoil.