Jonathan Reynolds, business secretary, suggests Starmer himself did not decide pay for his chief of staff
Anushka Asthana from ITV has more on why Labour advisers are so angry about Sue Gray’s pay. She has posted a thread on social media.
New- the reason Labour’s special advisers are so upset about this is many of them were put on standing salaries of £57k when they began, so Sue Gray is earning 3x that. Equivalent Tory spads were on over £100k. Contracts since negotiated but some still landing this week 1
They were told the Tory pay was not relevant. Instead there were four new pay bands. I understand that the highest goes from £140k- £180k. So is someone earning more than Sue Gray? Then there is senior spad, spad and junior spad. Sounds like even big depts are in 3rd band 2/
And though many have negotiated a bit higher than 57k it doesn’t sound like much higher, and way below predecessors. These are all big salaries of course but they feel they are working 7 days a week and not much more than in opposition 3/
Beyond that- there were people who were told they were getting roles in govt - but then weren’t on a pre-agreed list from no10 and so were suddenly out of jobs after working for four years or more in opposition. So there is bad blood 4/
Tories saying over £100k was quite rare but still the salaries were higher. In a way it’s less about salaries but more the upset it’s caused among a group of people who are pretty core to govt political functioning 5/
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