Public sector fat cats need to go on a diet

Gordon Brown has promised to keep public sector pay rises within the 2% inflation target. But his tough policy only seems to apply to nurses and teachers rather than top bosses on six-figure salaries.

The report by the Taxpayers' Alliance on public-sector pay confirms that the Labour Government has become "an exercise in hypocrisy and deceit", says Leo McKinstry in the Daily Express. With his "usual moralising tones", Gordon Brown has been promising to keep pay rises for public-sector workers within the Government's 2% inflation target, but his tough policy appears to apply only to frontline staff, such as nurses and teachers, rather than the "feather-bedded" elite.

Figures unearthed by the pressure group from the annual reports of 126 public-sector bodies reveal that the top 300 bosses in the state sector saw their salaries jump 12.8% last year, boosting their pay to an average of £237,564. Seventeen earned more than £500,000 a year, and the highest earner, Adam Crozier, group chief executive of Royal Mail, saw his total package increase by 21% last year to £1.25m, even as he cancelled the second mail delivery and increased the price of stamps.

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