No golden handshake for ousted Iris Robinson

By resigning as an MP next week, Iris Robinson stands to lose out on the £32,000 (€35,560)-plus "golden goodbye" which would have been available had she held on until a general election.

Many MPs disgraced over their expenses claims have been accused of carrying on until the election simply to ensure they receive the so-called resettlement grant.

It is worth, depending on age and length of service, between 50% and 100% of an MPs' salary - currently £64,766 (€71,972).

The wife of the North's First Minister Peter Robinson will forgo that benefit, however, if she departs before the election is called.

Democratic Unionist Party sources said she would be quitting Westminster as early as next week.

However, she will still enjoy a final salary pension and get a "winding up" allowance of up to £42,068 (€46,748) to pay off staff and meet other administration costs.

Mrs Robinson employs her son, Jonathan, as her office manager and daughter-in-law, Ellen, as a part-time secretary.

She is expected to apply for the Chiltern Hundreds, the traditional procedure necessary for MPs to leave the Commons because it is not technically possible to resign as an MP.

Instead, by obtaining an office of the Crown, MPs wishing to depart are officially expelled.

The current Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds is Ian Gibson who quit last summer over his expenses claims.

By-elections are usually held within a few months of a seat falling vacant, but there is no time limit and it is up to the sitting party to move a writ to trigger the process.

Seats are often left vacant towards the end of a Parliament if there is a general election in the offing.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown must hold an election by June this year and is currently expected to call it for May 6.

A DUP source indicated today that the party would not be going for a by-election but would wait until May.

It is likely to be the second seat left without an MP until the election following the death of David Taylor, the Labour MP for North West Leicestershire, last month.