The timing of Brexit could not have been better for the Sturdy family. Father Robert stood down in 2014 after twenty years as an MEP. At today's prices that must be around £1.5 million in salary plus another €1 million in office allowances, plus generous expenses. Afterwards there is a "transitional" payment of one months salary for each year of service (see HERE), let's say conservatively (no pun intended) another £100,000. During that time the Sturdy farming business received at least €458,166 in CAP payments and another £60,372 for the years 2014-15. I assume more last year. He can also look forward to a generous pension.
It's funny how a vehicle for selfless public service begins to look more like a gravy train when your father steps off it, but this is what happened to Robert's son Julian. By 2016, he had served six years as an MP at Westminster starting at £67,060 a year rising to £74,000 in 2015, plus expenses of course, and staffing costs of £133,283.96. Mindful of the fact that his father's income no longer depended on it, he outed himself as a keen Eurosceptic and urged voters to leave the EU in last year's referendum.
So, the public purse has been generous to the Sturdy dynasty. At least £3.5 million coming, by my reckoning, in one way or another. But that was not quite enough, Julian then put his wife on his payroll as a "part time secretary", to squeeze out the last few coppers.
He is now campaigning for higher farm subsidies to encourage home grown produce in what he calls "sustainable intensification" - or what you and I know as food mountains.
Incidentally, you can go through any MP's expenditure on the IPSA website (HERE).
