5 days ago
Labour quietly paves way for £174k civil servant salaries
Rachel Reeves has 'opened the floodgates' to bumper civil servant pay raises after removing the need for ministers to approve of salaries above £150,000.
Under new civil service guidance issued by the Treasury, only earnings above £174,000 and bonuses more than £25,000 must be signed off, a rise from £150,000 and £17,500 respectively.
The change will affect 260 civil servants who earn between £150,000 and £200,000 a year and 30 mandarins who earn more than £200,000. A further 2,915 staff earn more than £100,000 a year.
William Yarwood, of the TaxPayers' Alliance campaign group, told The Telegraph: 'Taxpayers will be outraged that top civil servants are being handed even more generous pay raises with less oversight.
'This quiet rule change opens the floodgates to inflated salaries behind closed doors at a time when Whitehall should be making cuts.
'With the public sector already bloated and unaccountable, ministers must slam the brakes on these cosy pay arrangements and start defending the interests of taxpayers.'
Pay control measures were introduced by the last Conservative government in an attempt to manage the public sector wage bill. However, the final years of the Tory government saw the size of the Civil Service balloon.
The number of civil servants has increased by 21pc in the past five years, with the wage bill up by a quarter. The median salary increased by 25pc from £27,080 in 2019 to £33,980 in 2024.
The Treasury defended increasing the threshold by £24,000 – equivalent to 16pc – arguing the £150,000 cap had been frozen since 2017.
Impact on taxpayers
However, that may prove little comfort to taxpayers. Income tax and National Insurance thresholds have remained frozen since 2021-22 with Sir Keir Starmer refusing last week to rule out extending the stealth raid until 2029-30.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves used her maiden Budget last year to extend a freeze on inheritance tax thresholds until 2029-30, a threshold that has stayed the same since 2009.
Conservative MP, Richard Holden, criticised increasing the Civil Service threshold, describing it as a 'grubby deal'.
The shadow paymaster general told the Mail on Sunday: 'The state is far too bloated.
'They are a party in hock to public sector pay, and trying to sneak out bumper pay deals for mandarins and quangocrats by the back door shows they don't have the national interest at heart.
'A grubby deal for their public sector chums achieves nothing.'
A Treasury spokesman said: 'The previous threshold for senior civil servants' salaries was set in 2017, and since then, average pay across the private and public sector has risen.
'The new, below-inflation, threshold rise would apply to a minority of senior civil servants and would be subject to rigorous scrutiny.'
