MP Rehman Chishti received more in a severance payment than he did for his actual job as a minister, it has emerged.

The Tory earned £5,593 as a junior Foreign Office official during a brief nine-week spell before losing the position in 2022.

The Gillingham and Rainham MP broke no rules – along with dozens more parliamentarians – in being paid severance but the sums in question have raised some eyebrows.

He was paid a salary of £3,743, some £1,850 less than the severance payment of £5,593.

The details were listed in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Annual Report & Accounts 2022–23.

Labour has criticised the compensation payment paid to Mr Chisti, saying it would reform the rules to stop excessive payments that MPs who have lost their job currently receive.

Ministers have been legally entitled to three months’ wages at their current annual salary when they leave their post, regardless of how long they have been in the job, or the reasons for their departure.

Mr Chishti was one of 97 ministers who claimed severance payments during 2022/23, a year in which three different Prime Ministers were in charge.

An MP since 2010, he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for North America, Sanctions and Consular Policy in July 2022.

But he was in the job for just three months. He surprised some when he joined the leadership race in 2022 – but his campaign did not last long and he was forced to drop out.

Cllr Naushabah Khan, Labour's candidate to take on Mr Chishti at the next general election, said: “After 12 years in Parliament, Rehman Chishti finally got the chance to serve as a minister when Boris Johnson had run out of anyone else willing to join his government.”

But she added instead of focusing on his constituents, he felt entitled to walk away at the end of nine weeks with three months wages in severance, all at the taxpayers' expense.

Labour says it will change the law so individuals can only claim a quarter of their actual earnings as a minister in the previous 12 months, not a quarter of their annual salary.

In the case of Mr Chishti that would have brought his payout down from £5,593 to £936.

Mr Chishti, who receives a basic MP salary of £86,584, did not respond to requests for comment.