Dominic Cummings is in line for a £36,000 pay-out when he leaves the Government this week as ministers defended his salary increase of at least £40,000 in 2020.
Yesterday it emerged the now former chief adviser to Boris Johnson saw his pay rocket from a salary band of £95,000 to £99,000 in 2019 to a salary band of £140,000 to £145,000 in 2020.
Mr Cummings is in the process of quitting Whitehall after losing a Downing Street power battle in November and special adviser rules suggest he is set to receive three months’ of his salary in severance pay.
The news of Mr Cummings’ massive pay bump prompted a major political backlash but Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick today defended the move as he compared the salary to that of a council chief executive.
Dominic Cummings is in line for £36,000 in severance pay when he leaves the Government according to special adviser rules
Mr Jenrick told Sky News: ‘Dominic Cummings has obviously left the Government now but I understand he was given a pay rise to bring his salary broadly in line with those of his predecessors, other people who have been chief of staff to former prime ministers.
‘This is a significant amount of money, obviously, but it is line with say the chief executive of a medium sized local council.
‘And the amount of money we spend on political advisers within government, both this Government and its predecessors is very small by international standards, a very small portion of the amount of money we spend on the broader civil service.’
The massive increase in salary came in a year in which Mr Cummings became embroiled in a huge public row over his 260-mile lockdown trip to Durham and amid major criticism of the Government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The pay rise was brought up at PMQs at lunchtime by Sir Keir Starmer as the Labour leader claimed Mr Cummings’ trip to Durham was the ‘tipping point’ when the Government lost public trust over its coronavirus response.
Sir Keir told the House of Commons: ‘And now we learn that while the Prime Minister and the Chancellor are telling the armed forces, police officers, care workers and fire fighters that they will get a pay freeze, Dominic Cummings has been handed at least a £40,000 pay rise.
‘How on earth does the Prime Minister justify that?’
Mr Johnson dodged the question as he claimed Sir Keir ‘totally trivialises the efforts of the British people’ in combatting the spread of the disease.
The PM also labelled Sir Keir a ‘one club golfer’ because of the Labour leader’s repeated calls for tougher lockdown measures.
Sir Keir hit back and said: ‘You could script that from October and November when he was saying a lockdown is the last thing the country needs, disastrous – two weeks later he put it on the table and voted for it. Ridiculous.
‘It is exactly the problem that we have got, not learning from mistakes and obviously we know about Dominic Cummings, it wasn’t performance-related pay.
‘I think the British people will find it pretty hard to understand why it is one rule for our key workers and another for his advisers.’
Downing Street later defended the pay rise as the Prime Minister’s press secretary Allegra Stratton said the increase had been agreed by the Cabinet Office special adviser pay committee.
She said: ‘It is the case that Dominic Cummings’ revised salary reflected the fact that up until his departure he was one of if not the most important special adviser and the new salary he received was in line with the salary that chiefs of staff and people of that rank receive.
‘So it is not that his new salary took him over and above what you would expect of the kind of role he performed.’
She added: ‘It is the correct level of salary for the role Dominic Cummings performed.’
Official data published by the Cabinet Office yesterday revealed Mr Johnson’s army of Government special advisers cost taxpayers almost £10million in the 2019/20 financial year.
The annual report on special advisers also revealed that Mr Johnson now has eleven senior aides based in Number 10 who all earn at least £110,000.
Among them is new press secretary Allegra Stratton who is listed as earning between £125,000 and £130,000.
Sir Edward Lister, the PM’s chief strategic adviser, is listed as being paid between £140,000 and £145,000, the same as Mr Johnson’s policy chief Munira Mirza.
Government special advisers are classed as temporary civil servants who are appointed to provide political advice and assistance to ministers.
The Cabinet Office publishes details about the pay of special advisers every year.
This year’s report revealed there were 102 special advisers working across the Government as at March 31.
However, that number has now increased, with 116 special advisers in Government jobs as at December 15.
The overall special adviser pay bill for the last financial year clocked in at £9.6million.
Some £6.9million of that cash went on salaries while £1.9million went on pension contributions and £800,000 went on National Insurance contributions.
The overall bill is the same as what was spent on special adviser pay in the 2018/19 financial year.
Special advisers are entitled to a severance payment when their minister loses their job.
Between April 2019 and March 2020 some £2.7million was paid out in severance payments.
This figure has been attributed to the high level of staff turnover due to the change in administration following Mr Johnson’s victory in the Tory leadership contest last year.