Keir Starmer's Chief of Staff Earns More Than The Prime Minister

Sue Gray received a raise after the last elections, while the rest of the government's special advisors had their salaries cut.

The British Prime Minister's chief of staff, Keir Starmer, received a pay rise after the last UK elections and now earns more than the Prime Minister himself, reports the BBC.

 

According to a source at the British media outlet, Sue Gray asked for and ended up with a salary of 170,000 pounds (201,000 euros) a year, three thousand pounds (3559 euros) more than the prime minister and than any other cabinet minister or their predecessor.

“It was suggested that she earn a few thousand pounds less than the prime minister to avoid this same story. She refused,” the same source told the BBC.

Sue Gray's predecessor, Conservative Liam Booth-Smith, in Rishi Sunak's government, at the time received the highest salary for special advisers, between 140 and 145 thousand pounds a year (between 117 and 122 thousand euros).

The news of Gray's pay rise, confirmed to the BBC by several Whitehall sources, is the latest controversy involving the British Prime Minister's chief of staff and reinforces the scenario of conflicted relations at the top of government just a few months after the start of the Labour Party's mandate.