Theresa May breaks her promise on special advisers’ pay as Downing Street continues David Cameron’s legacy of lavish salaries for top aides

• Theresa May has broken her own promise to introduce a salary cap of £72,000 on salaries for special advisers, as new figures reveal the Government employs 25 special advisers with salaries above £72,000.

• The combined salaries of all special advisers above the threshold set by May amounts to over £2.3m.

• The number of Special Advisers employed by the Government is up, with 88 employed as of December 2017, compared to the 83 listed in the December 2016 release.

• The new figures also reveal that seven Cabinet Ministers employ more special advisers than the maximum set out by the Ministerial Code.

Jon Trickett MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, said:

“Theresa May’s hypocrisy is galling. She promised a salary cap for special advisers but has instead rewarded political appointees with bumper pay deals. The public is paying for more special advisers and to make matters worse has had to pick up the tab for Theresa May’s election failure, with a huge severance bill for outgoing advisers.

“These figures will be hard to take for millions of taxpayers who are struggling to make ends meet under this Tory Government. It’s yet more proof that the Tories always put their own interests before those of the many.”