Temporary NHS managers brought in by failing health services are being paid record rates of up to £400,000 a year.

Ministers have repeatedly ordered clampdowns on “excessive and indefensible” management pay and promised extra scrutiny of deals which pay more than the £142,500 salary of the Prime Minister.

But a Telegraph investigation of 32 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) failing so badly that they have been taken over by NHS England shows that in fact rates have reached a record high.

Nurse leaders last night said executive pay was “spiralling out of control” amid warnings that “sky-high” remuneration packages were not being matched by improvements to frontline services.