The Tories are demanding Angela Rayner hand back the £16,876 payoff she received for quitting as a Cabinet minister last year... now that she is back in her old job.

Ms Rayner made a stunning return to Cabinet on Monday night when she was appointed to new Prime Minister Andy Burnham's top team.

She is back in her former role as Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary after Steve Reed, a Keir Starmer loyalist, was sacked by Mr Burnham.

It comes little more than ten months after Ms Rayner was forced to resign following her tearful admission that she failed to pay £40,000 in stamp duty on a new flat.

Official accounts for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), which were published last week, confirmed Ms Rayner received a £16,876 exit payment for quitting the department on 5 September last year.

The Conservatives are now calling on her to pay back the sum after she was returned to office by Mr Burnham following an absence of less than a year.

James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, said: 'Angela Rayner crusaded against tax avoidance, then avoided tax on her home, tried to cover it up and was forced to resign in disgrace.

'She pocketed a £17,000 reward courtesy of the taxpayer, and now she's got her old job back courtesy of her mate Andy Burnham, who wants to hike taxes on the family home for everyone else. Rayner should hand back the cash. Her reappointment just confirms that there is one rule for Labour, and another for everyone else.'

The Tories are demanding Angela Rayner hand back the £16,876 payoff she received for quitting as a Cabinet minister last year... now that she is back in her old job

Mike Wood, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, contrasted Ms Rayner's acceptance of the severance payment to how Rushanara Ali - a fellow MHCLG minister - turned down a payoff.

Ms Ali quit as homelessness minister in August last year following a row over her rental of a property she owns in east London.

She ended her tenants' fixed-term contract in order to sell up, but then re-listed the house for rent at a higher price within six months.

Mr Wood said: 'Rushanara Ali, who was forced to quit as homelessness minister after evicting her tenants, turned down her severance payment.

'Angela Rayner, on the other hand, kept hers – a convenient cash boost to help cover her unpaid tax bill.

'Now that she's back at MHCLG and in charge of stamp duty - a tax she dodged - she can have no excuse for not handing back the money to the taxpayer.'

Government ministers are entitled to a severance payment of 25 per cent of their annual salary when they leave office and are not reappointed within three weeks.

Ms Rayner's payoff was a quarter of her annual ministerial salary of £67,505, which she was paid in addition to the £98,599 yearly salary she receives for being MP for Ashton-under-Lyne.

It is not yet known whether Lucy Powell, the Manchester Central MP who was appointed Education Secretary by Mr Burnham on Monday, accepted a severance payment when she was sacked as Commons Leader by Sir Keir in September last year.

John Healey and Wes Streeting are two other returnees to Cabinet under Mr Burnham, with both having quit Sir Keir's administration in recent weeks.

Following an update to the ministerial code made by Sir Keir in October last year, those former ministers who are reappointed to a ministerial office within three months are expected to forgo their salary for the period overlapping with the severance payment period.

This would apply to both Mr Healey and Mr Streeting if they accepted a severance payment when they quit as defence secretary and health secretary, respectively, under Sir Keir.

Official accounts for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government confirmed Ms Rayner received a £16,876 exit payment for quitting the department on 5 September

A further change, made in October 2025 a month after Ms Rayner resigned, states that ministers are expected to waive a severance payment if they have committed a 'serious breach' of the ministerial code.

In a ruling on Ms Rayner's stamp duty row, Sir Laurie Magnus, the PM's independent adviser on ministers' interests, said Ms Rayner breached the code because she failed to meet the 'highest possible standards of proper conduct'.

When news of her severance payment later emerged, a spokesman for Ms Rayner said: 'There is a world of difference between making an honest mistake and a severe breach of the ministerial code.

'As the independent ethics adviser's investigation concluded, Angela acted with integrity and an exemplary commitment to public service.'

Sources close to Ms Rayner have pointed to how Tory leader Kemi Badenoch received a £7,920 severance payment when she quit Boris Johnson's government in July 2022.

She returned to the Cabinet just two months later when she was appointed by new PM Liz Truss in September that year.