Civil service union chief defends wages higher than PM

Big earner: OFT chief John Fingleton's annual salary package is up to £279,999
12 April 2012

A civil service union chief hit back at government attacks on high-earning public sector staff today, claiming that David Cameron could afford to take a pay cut because he is a "millionaire".

Jonathan Baume, leader of the First Division Association that represents senior Whitehall staff, defended his colleagues as the Cabinet Office named the 172 civil servants who earn more than the Prime Minister.

The pay and perks of senior civil servants earning more than £150,000 were published as part of the new coalition's pledge to remove the "cloak of secrecy" from government information.

A list compiled by the Cabinet Office showed the top earner was Office of Fair Trading chief executive John Fingleton, whose annual £279,999 package was one of 23 worth more than £200,000. Business Secretary Vince Cable called for "more discipline" from public sector staff when the UK's public deficit was at record levels.

But Mr Baume said that while some of the salaries revealed today were high compared with others in the public sector, they were "modest in most cases compared with the private sector".

"They are jobs at the very top of an enormous organisation operating across the UK. You have to remember Prime Minister's salaries have been held down consistently for political reasons and David Cameron himself is a millionaire.

"I've got absolutely no issue with that, but PMs, even if he wasn't, generally go on to become very rich afterwards, that's certainly been the case with the last three or four prime ministers," he told BBC Radio 4's Today show.

The new Government has at least 38 "millionaire ministers". The Cabinet has 23 out of its 29 members with assets of more than £1 million, but the Standard has identified a further 15 millionaires given jobs by the Lib-Con coalition.

Among the richest are Jonathan Djanogly, Richard Benyon, Greg Barker, Lord Freud, Lynne Featherstone and Alan Duncan.

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