TREASURY MANDARINS GET BONUSES FOR EU REFERENDUM WORK

TREASURY MANDARINS GET BONUSES FOR EU REFERENDUM WORK



Scores of mandarins have been rewarded with millions of pounds in bonuses for their work in the run-up to the EU referendum.

The highest ranks in Whitehall pocketed payments of up to £17,000 each - despite most of the public sector enduring austerity.

New figures show 27 top officials at the Treasury - which spearheaded George Osborne's 'Project Fear' drive against Brexit - shared just under £250,000.

Some 65 senior civil servants at the Cabinet Office also split £580,000 in cash for their performance in 2015-16, despite the failure to secure any meaningful concessions during David Cameron's bid to renegotiate our EU membership terms.



At the Home Office, run by Theresa May at the time, 58 mandarins were handed a total of £355,000.

Meanwhile, at the Department of Health 36 top officials divided up £381,000 even though the NHS was struggling to cope.

At the Department for Business £603,000 was shared between 56 people, at the Ministry of Justice £200,000 was paid to 21 officials.

At Energy and Climate Change 29 mandarins received £307,000, and at the Ministry of Defence 41 split £378,000.

The figures on 'non-consolidated performance related payments', slipped out by the government without fanfare today, are likely to cause frustration.

The Prime Minister has been under intense pressure to ease austerity for rank-and-file public sector workers such as teachers and nurses, after seven years with a 1 per cent cap in force.

The Treasury produced a series of dire warnings in the lead-up to the referendum, claiming that a Leave vote would "cause an immediate and profound economic shock" with the effect being "to push the UK into recession and lead to a sharp rise in unemployment".

However, the grim predictions failed to materialise and it is yet to be seen what the longer term impact of the decision will be.

Mr Cameron spent months traversing the EU in late 2015 and early 2016 trying to secure a better deal with the EU to put to the British public.

But he came away with only minor concessions - and crucially no significant measures to curb immigration from the bloc.