His Lordship is a Profitable Servant
by Christopher Booker

Some readers were struck by my reference last week to the fact that, as a former vice-president of the European Commission, Lord Kinnock is entitled to a pension worth £75,000 a year, since this is a higher figure than has been quoted before.

It derives from a written answer given to Lord Pearson of Rannoch on January 11, 2005. This shows that, on reaching 65 in two years' time, Lord Kinnock will draw 45 per cent of his final salary of £165,000, and is entitled to draw most of that already. On this he pays tax at a special preferential rate for EU employees of only 11 per cent, to the Belgian government.

This is, of course, in addition to what he receives as chairman of that increasingly rum body, the British Council; not to mention the rewards received by the rest of his family - his son Stephen, head of the British Council in St Petersburg; his wife Glenys, who receives £200,000 a year in salary and expenses as an MEP; and daughter Rachel, also on the EU payroll as her mother's researcher.
The Sunday Telegraph, 5th March 2006