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Revealed: How the Kinnocks have enjoyed an astonishing £10m ride on the EU gravy train

By Simon Mcgee
Last updated at 1:49 PM on 14th June 2009

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Neil and Glenys Kinnock received more than £10million in pay, allowances and pension entitlements during their time working at the European Union in Brussels.

The astonishing figure can be revealed after a Mail on Sunday investigation into the couple’s lavish lifestyle funded from the public purse.

Lady Kinnock, who was appointed Europe Minister by Gordon Brown this month, was an MEP for 15 years. Her husband, who failed to win a General Election as Labour leader, was an EU Commissioner for ten years until 2004.
Neil Kinnock will enjoy a lavish retirement thanks to his EU payments

Drive to luxury: Neil Kinnock will enjoy a lavish retirement thanks to his EU payments

Their generous package of salary and perks included:

* A total of £775,000 in wages for Lady Kinnock and £1.85 million for her husband, adding up to £2,625,000.
* Allowances for Lady Kinnock’s staff and office costs of £2.9million.
* A £64,564 ‘entertainment allowance’ for Lord Kinnock.
* A total of five publicly-funded pensions, worth £4.4million, allowing them to retire on £183,000 a year.
* A housing allowance that allowed them both to claim accommodation costs although, as a married couple, they lived in the same house in the Belgian capital between 1995 and 2004.

Now back at the centre of British politics, Lady Kinnock has been elevated to the House of Lords while her husband played a key role in quelling last weekend’s rebellion against Mr Brown.

The Mail on Sunday questioned a spokeswoman for the Kinnocks in detail about the figures, calculated by the think-tank Open Europe. It campaigns for greater transparency in Brussels.

She disputed only one figure – a ‘transition allowance’ Lord Kinnock received on his departure from Brussels, worth £355,143 at today’s exchange rate. She said the true figure was lower, but refused to reveal it.

The European Parliament does not publish a breakdown of expenses that MEPs have to claim, rather than receive automatically, so Open Europe has estimated Lady Kinnock’s travel costs based on the average for MEPs.

These are in addition to her wages and the allowances she was eligible to receive automatically. The estimates are £1,179,482 for travel between Britain and the Continent over 15 years, and £45,777 for travel outside the EU.

Lady Kinnock is entitled to a transition allowance running into tens of thousands of pounds, designed to keep ex-MEPs going until they find new employment, but her ministerial appointment means she will forgo it.
Glenys Kinnock has been elevated to the House of Lords

Glenys Kinnock has been elevated to the House of Lords

However, questions were being asked last night about claims for the Kinnocks’ three-bedroom Brussels home, where they lived together between 1995 and 2004.

They bought it after Lady Kinnock’s election in 1994, and sold it after Lord Kinnock stood down from the Commission in 2004.

A Brussels estate agent said the house would probably have cost about £120,000 in 1994, and would have doubled in value by the time it was sold.

During his ten years in Brussels, Lord Kinnock automatically received residential allowances totalling £276,962.

And his wife has been claiming the controversial daily attendance allowance, designed to cover the cost of accommodation and subsistence when MEPs are in Brussels and Strasbourg for meetings. But she refused to say how many days she claimed for.

Asked if she claimed the attendance allowance while her husband received his residential allowance, a spokeswoman for the Kinnocks said: ‘Glenys Kinnock claimed the per diem attendance allowance to which she was entitled for each parliamentary day attended. European Commissioners’ residential allowance is paid at 15 per cent of a Commissioner’s salary.’