Records show salary of Rupert Harrison, a chief architect of public sector pay freezes, rose to £95,000 over the last year

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

George Osborne’s most senior adviser has received an 18% pay rise in the last year even though he has been one of the chief architects of a multi-year public sector pay freeze.

The salary of Rupert Harrison, Osborne’s long-term special adviser, rose from £80,000 to £95,000 over the last year, according to the latest list of salaries for special advisers released on Thursday.

It appears he received the increase because the chancellor appointed him to the Treasury Council of Economic Advisers, a body initially set up by the then Labour chancellor, Gordon Brown.

Osborne appointed Harrison and three others advisers to the council. It was thought that the institution, an idea imported from the US by Brown, had become defunct, but it appears to have been revived by Osborne.

A footnote to the list of salaries released by the Cabinet Office stated that three Osborne advisers who joined the council were Jennifer Donnellan, Eleanor Wolfson and Neil O’Brien. It said O’Brien, a former director of the Policy Exchange thinktank, was paid £89,500.

Sheila Gilmore, a Labour member of the work and pensions select committee, said: “It’s no wonder George Osborne doesn’t think the cost-of-living-crisis is a problem if he’s giving his chief adviser a pay rise of almost 20%.

“Ordinary working people, who have seen their wages after inflation fall by over £1,600 since 2010, won’t be impressed. And it shows just how out of touch the chancellor is if he thinks it’s fine to describe progression pay in the civil service as ‘deeply unfair’ but then hand his special adviser an extra £15,000.”

Harrison is highly regarded inside Whitehall, but has been a central figure in devising the government’s deficit reduction programme, as well as successive pay freezes.

It has been reported that Harrison has been courted by various hedge funds, and the pay rise, tucked away in a footnote to the salary list, may have been an attempt to take his earnings closer to what he might earn in the private sector.

The pay rise prompted Labour accusations of hypocrisy as it emerged the overall bill for special advisers employed by ministers had risen by £1.2m from £7.2m to £8.4m in 2013-14.

The number of advisers has also increased to more than 100 for the first time under the coalition, despite its pledge in 2010 to limit the number of “spads”.

Labour said the figures showed that the overall numbers of special advisers had risen inexorably under the coalition from 71 in 2010 to 74 in 2011, 83 in 2012 and 98 last year.

Angela Eagle, the shadow leader of the House, accused the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats of breaking a commitment in the coalition agreement to limit the number of the special advisers – many of them direct political appointments by ministers.

“David Cameron promised to get the cost of politics down, but under him the number of special advisers spirals ever upwards – the public are now picking up a bill of over £8m to pay for his appointees,” she said.

“This also shows how you can’t trust a word Nick Clegg says. The Lib Dems used to say that special advisers shouldn’t be paid for by the public, but as soon as he got his feet under the Cabinet table, he broke his word.”

William Hague, the leader of the House, said the rising number of special advisers was the result of having a coalition, while the prime minister’s official spokesman said special advisers’ pay was now on average £5,000 a year less than it had been under the Labour government.

The Cabinet Office list showed that six advisers were paid £100,000 or more, with the list topped by Cameron’s chief of staff, Ed Llewellyn, and his director of communications, Craig Oliver, who each received £140,000.

Christopher Lockwood, deputy head of the No 10 policy unit, received £134,000; the prime minister’s press secretary, Graeme Wilson, received £110,000; and Kate Fall, Cameron’s deputy chief of staff, received £100,000.

Clegg’s director of communications, Steve Lotinga, received £105,000. He was previously a managing director of public affairs at Edelman, one of the world’s largest public affairs corporations.

Ukip’s economic spokesman, Patrick O’Flynn, said: “These figures are very disappointing when you consider that the government has at the same time failed to get a handle on Britain’s spiralling debt and fiscal deficit.

“What we really need are more real doctors and less government spin-doctors.