Blair under fire over pay

Mr Blair's pay rise has angered unions

Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to take his full pay for the first time - boosting his salary by 40% - and allow his cabinet increased entitlements, has been widely criticised.

Unions and opposition politicians have lined up to accuse the Labour government of hypocrisy, but ministers have defended the move.

Annual salaries

Prime minister - £163,000

Vodafone chief exec - £837, 000

BP chief executive - £815,232

Secondary head - up to £78,800

Leading barrister - £150-200,000

Hospital consultant £66,000

Council chief executive - up to £120,000

The prime minister's salary has been increased by about £50,000, to £163,000 a year - in line with the recommendations of the independent Senior Salaries Review Board.

The pay of cabinet ministers will rise from about £100,000 to £118,000 a year, after being held down last year.

Even the pro-Blair Mirror newspaper criticised Mr Blair's 40% pay rise.

Experts at Incomes Data Services say the prime minister's salary is far below those commanded by top UK company chief executives.

Their figures show the chief executive of the UK's largest company - Vodafone - receives a basic salary of £837,000.

It was hypocritical to hold down pay levels until after the election

Malcolm Bruce
Liberal Democrats

Mr Blair's wife, the barrister Cherie Booth, is thought to earn between £150,000 and £200,000 a year, although that will depend on how many days she works.

Labour 'arrogance'

Conservative Party chairman Michael Ancram said: "So much for the humility promised by the prime minister at the start of the recent election campaign.

"Once elected, it is back to the old arrogance."

Malcolm Bruce, chairman of the Lib Dem parliamentary party, said it was "hypocritical" to hold down pay levels until after the election.

Mr Vaz departed as expected

He added: "Does this imply that the prime minister thought he wasn't up for the job in the last parliament or that winning the lowest share of the popular vote in history now justifies a pay rise?"

Unions are furious that Labour has made the decision after continually preaching restraint on public sector pay.

Ministerial reshuffle

Nigel de Gruchy, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, added: "I do not begrudge the government a pay rise, but the timing has to be regarded as extremely cynical, coming so soon after the general election.

"It is obviously one rule for politicians and another for teachers and nurses."

But Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid stressed the salary levels were decided by an independent body four years ago and since then cabinet ministers together had not taken £2.5m of their entitlement.

"I'm just asking, is it grounds for criticism to have foregone pay rises for four years?

"Would it have been better for us just to have accepted it in 1997, or is it something that no British cabinet should ever get a pay increase in the future?"

Pay distortion

The Senior Salaries Review Board recommended in March that cabinet ministers should take their full salaries.

It argued that their decision not to draw their full pay was creating a "distortion" in the parliamentary pay system.

The salary move came after Mr Blair made sweeping changes to his junior ministerial team on Monday, with 22 ministers returning to the backbenches and several members of the class of '97 given their spurs.