Nicola Sturgeon is Britain’s highest paid politician with £145k salary

FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon is to become the highest paid politician in Britain, days after calling for an end to austerity measures.

Nicola SturgeonPA

As of next month, Nicola Sturgeon will be the highest paid politician in UK

The SNP leader’s salary will soar to £144,687 – £2,000 more than David Cameron earns as Prime Minister.

It comes after Holyrood politicians yesterday voted themselves a pay rise designed to distance themselves from Westminster excesses.

All five parties at the Scottish Parliament unanimously agreed to end the long-running practice of pegging their pay to that of MPs.

MSPs had been paid 87.5 per cent of an MP’s wage and were in line for a nine per cent increase after the general election.

However leaders at Holyrood said it was “politically unthinkable” to take the hike in the current economic climate.

But yesterday’s vote for a 0.7 per cent rise will see the First Minister’s pay boosted beyond that of other political leaders.

From April 1 she will get an MSP’s salary of £59,089 and £85,598 as First Minister.

Aides last night insisted Ms Sturgeon would stick to a voluntary 2009 Scottish ministerial pay freeze and put the extra cash into a fund propping up public spending.

David Cameron is paid £142,500, Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones £129,047, and Northern Irish First Minister Peter Robinson £120,000. London mayor Boris Johnson gets £143,911.

It will strike taxpayers as absolutely perverse that Nicola Sturgeon gets more than the Prime Minister

Taxpayer Scotland spokesman

A spokesman for the First Minister said last night her salary would effectively remain frozen at £135,605.

He added: “The difference in the First Minister’s salary and that of other Scottish Ministers goes into the Scottish Consolidated Fund, and as such goes back to fund public spending.” 

Ms Sturgeon, whose party is expected to make major gains in May’s election, has repeatedly said she would prop up a Labour government only if it dropped spending cuts.

Recently she attacked Westminster’s “austerity economics”.

A spokesman for Taxpayer Scotland said last night: “It will strike taxpayers as absolutely perverse that Nicola Sturgeon gets more than the Prime Minister.”

Last year Alex Salmond, when he was First Minister, quietly overtook Mr Cameron when his salary went up to £143,680.

Peter Bone, Tory MP for Wellingborough, said last night: “Most will be very surprised she is entitled to more than the Prime Minister, clearly with a lot less responsibility.

"It will be interesting to see what the Scottish electorate make of it at the general election.”

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