Business minister defends Keir Starmer's free gifts and Sue Gray's salary. Source: Sky News
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Explain to me the stunning arrogance of a member of staff who thinks that they should earn more than the boss.
00:07Well, this is a clearly an important job, I believe. More important than the Prime Minister.
00:12Sets these pay bans.
00:14Well, I think there's a process that sets these pay bans and it will reflect previous experience, it will reflect the role.
00:20Quite honestly, I don't know more about the process than that, other than it is a long established way of establishing within certain pay bans
00:28remuneration relating to the job that you do. I understand that is what has been followed in this case.
00:32You don't think that it's arrogant to ask and expect to earn more than the boss?
00:40I don't know the specifics of that negotiation. I think it'd be wrong to be honest to go into that, even if I was aware of that, but it's a process.
00:49You know the facts. She earns £170,000, he earns less.
00:54Well, again, I say I can only tell you there is a process by which these things are done.
01:00I know no more frankly about the process than that, but it's been followed and that is what has established the pay remuneration package in this case.
01:07The issue we're talking about, the substantive policy issue, is the fact that the previous government dramatically overspent,
01:13didn't account for key items of public expenditure like public sector pay.
01:18We've had to mop that up. The only opportunity the country has to address those issues are because there has been a change of government.
01:26We obviously need a team in place to do that. As long as every normal procedure has been followed and these things have been set in the normal way,
01:34I don't have a problem with how that has been put together.