At least 300 of the UK’s appointed staff to the EU earn more than the Prime Minister’s salary of £142,500, the Foreign Office has confirmed.
In a response to a parliamentary question on the subject, Lord Howell of Guildford, the Foreign Office minister in the Lords, stated that while the FO did not hold details of individual salaries, 300 of the UK’s officials are on salary scales for which the minimum pay is greater than €170,000 — the equivalent of the Prime Minister’s wage at current exchange rates.
All 27 members of the EU’s College of Commissioners earn more than this, including the UK’s member, Cathy Ashton, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who is the world’s highest-paid female politician, taking home £328,000 a year.
As well as providing the facts, Howell also expressed guarded regret at the wage bill for these appointed officials, saying it was “only right” that, at a time when EU governments were cutting spending, institutions should “think carefully” and “ensure that they get the most for their money”.
He went on to say that the Foreign Office is pushing for a “freeze” in the 2011 Budget, and “expects salary levels to reflect the current economic conditions”.
Lord Stoddart, the independent Labour peer who tabled the question, condemned the existence of “an unelected governing elite in Brussels” and said: “It would appear that, by comparison to this pampered and overpaid elite, our Prime Minister is a somewhat underpaid office junior!”
He also pointed out that the information from the Foreign Office concerns salaries only, and does not cover the expenses and other allowances available to these officials, which have long been the subject of controversy.
Back in 2007, it was revealed that MEPs were reimbursed for travel on the basis of first-class fares plus 20 per cent, with no obligation to provide receipts. Baroness Ashton, for instance, in addition to her salary, has a private staff of 20 and a chauffeured car. The MEP Nigel Farage last year infamously boasted that he had taken “pushing £2m” of taxpayers’ money to promote Ukip’s message of withdrawal from the EU in Europe.
The list goes on. The revelation about the salaries for the UK’s unelected EU officials is only a small part of the picture. And as Howell has hinted, with vicious spending cuts at home, this vast expenditure of public funds on EU staffers is utterly outrageous.