Rule-breaking ministers to lose exit pay-outs

Ministers who leave office following a “serious breach” of ministerial rules will be stopped from getting pay-outs from October.

The move is part of a package of measures the government says will drive up standards in politics.

Meanwhile, former ministers who take up a job which breaches post-government employment rules will also be asked to repay any severance payment.

As part of the shake-up, the existing watchdog, which has been criticised as “toothless”, will be scrapped.

Conservative shadow minister Alex Burghart said the announcement amounted to “cosmetic re-brands of existing bodies”.

The functions of the Advisory Committee for Business Appointments (Acoba), which vets jobs taken up by former ministers and senior officials to avoid conflicts of interest, will be split between…