There have been questions about who is actually running the Government of late.

Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Sue Gray is taking home a huge pay packet. (Image: Getty)

With outrageous decisions – from the snatching of the winter fuel payment from millions of hard-up pensioners to Sir Starmer accepting thousands of pounds of freebies for him and his wife Lady Victoria – many are shaking their heads in disbelief at who is currently giving them advice.

If anyone should be acting as some kind of firewall then you’d think his top advisor – and chief of staff – Sue Gray would be the one to lend a hand and help him navigate the increasingly choppy waters.

But given it’s now been revealed that she accepted a pay packet that’s actually more than her boss – an eye-popping taxpayer funded £170,000 a year – despite reportedly getting advice to think very carefully about doing so, I do wonder if there’s currently anyone at all with an iota of political nous currently working at Number 10. Hordes of freebies and crazy taxpayer salaries all whilst millions of pensioners face a freezing winter.

Outrageous public sector pay levels have always gotten my goat. As a former deputy mayor, I am well versed with some of the eye-watering pay packets of the top brass, even at local councils, and have gotten into many an argument over why I don’t think they’re justifiable. The reason that’s always wheeled out is that the top level of pay needs to be competitive with the private sector as otherwise councils and Government won’t attract so-called top talent.

Sue Gray earns £3,000 more than her boss the PM. (Image: Getty)

This is rubbish. In my experience, once a civil servant, mostly always a civil servant. That extends to those working in local government too. I know there will of course be exceptions to the rule, but I’d imagine it’s rare that a top-performing CEO of a private company suddenly jumps ship to run a children’s services department or such like. I think it’d be a foolish exercise to increase pay even further to test that theory out.

If you have agreed with anything I’ve said so far, then a yearly read from the Taxpayer’s Alliance Town Hall Rich List should do the job in raising your blood pressure. This year they revealed the Prime Minister had a salary entitlement of £164,951 in 2022-23 and that 188 council employees had a higher salary than this – with 557 receiving total remuneration in excess. Ridiculous.

I’m not naive enough to think that there are those in the private sector – bankers and such like – whose take home pay absolutely dwarves top-level pay in these taxpayer-funded roles. But this is because these people are judged on their performance in a very tight fashion. If they don’t perform and bring home the big bucks for their company, they’re simply out on their ear. This is not the case in local authorities and Government jobs. In fact, the opposite is sometimes true, with some roles seemingly unsackable. As a councillor at a local authority, I know this as we tried.

I think the Conservatives had started to tackle such issues. In a move which was first mooted by David Cameron in 2015 they eventually introduced a cap of £95,000 on public sector redundancy payments in 2020. Sadly this was quickly scrapped after court action by trade unions.

I’d in fact go further than this and insist that no civil service role should pay higher than the Prime Minister. I might sound idealistic but noone should go into public service to make money.

Perhaps it’s time Sue got an advisor herself, albeit one we’re not all shelling out for.