Keir Starmer accused of handing ‘gold-plated pension’ to Sue Gray as pensioners brace for winter fuel cut

Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of handing “gold-plated pensions” to his top team while pensioners across the UK brace for the consequences of a cut to winter fuel payments.

On Wednesday, it emerged that Sue Gray was awarded a salary of £170,000, around £3,000 more than the prime minister and more than any cabinet minister or her Conservative predecessor.

The Conservative Party claimed Sir Keir had “snatched away support for the vulnerable”, while handing large pensions to his senior officials.

“It’s one rule for Labour and their trade union paymasters, another for everyone else,” a Tory party spokesperson said. “No wonder Labour has shown no restraint in axing winter fuel payments for suffering pensioners, as Keir Starmer and his top apparatchik have gold-plated pensions at taxpayers’ expense.

“Starmer must come clean on how much taxpayers are being billed for Labour’s pensions, while he snatches away support for the vulnerable.”

In July, Rachel Reeves announced that older people not in receipt of pension credits or other means-tested benefits will no longer receive winter fuel payments from this year onwards - a change that will impact around 10 million pensioners across the UK.

Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said ministers have “no political input” in the pay of their advisers.

He said there was a “long-standing process” for determining earnings for aides and dismissed suggestions that the prime minister had personally intervened to increase Ms Gray’s pay.

Mr Reynolds told Sky News: “I think it’s important people understand that the pay bands for any official, any adviser, are not set by politicians. There’s an official process that does that.”

Ms Gray herself had “no involvement in any decision on her pay”, a government spokesperson said.

But suggesting Ms Gray had asked for the higher salary, one source told the BBC: “It was suggested that she might want to go for a few thousand pounds less than the prime minister to avoid this very story. She declined.” But a government spokesperson said the allegation is “categorically untrue”.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson told The Independent: “It is false to suggest that political appointees have made any decisions on their own pay bands or determining their own pay. Any decision on special-adviser pay is made by officials, not political appointees.”