Pay rise of £19,000 for ministers won’t cost public purse a penny, says Todd

A £19,000 pay rise given to Scottish ministers will not cost the public purse a penny, the social care minister has said.

Maree Todd defended the First Minister’s decision to partially end the pay freeze for ministers which has been in place for 16 years.

Junior ministers will now be paid £100,575 a year while Cabinet secretaries will earn £116,125.

John Swinney has said he will not accept the £19,126 increase.

A voluntary pay freeze for ministers has been in place since 2009 when Alex Salmond was first minister.

They have since then declined to accept the rise, instead donating it back into the public purse, with around £2.2 million raised.

The latest decision means ministers will now be entitled to their full MSP salary, although their ministerial salary will remain at 2009 levels.

Appearing on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme on Wednesday, Ms Todd said the move does not count as a pay rise.

She said: “It’s not a pay rise, it won’t cost the public purse a penny extra, and I think it’s very important that people understand that.

“Since 2008 ministers have been, instead of accepting their pay rise every year, they have been taking it off their pay and putting it back into a public pot.”So ministers have donated £2.2 million to the public purse since that pay freeze came in.

“That means ministers like me were paid £55,000 a year for their MSP work.

“What’s happened now is that I am now going to be paid the same as my other backbench colleagues.”

First Minister Mr Swinney said the decision to raise ministerial salaries was made out of “fairness”, but said he will not take the increase to ensure Scots do not think he made the change to benefit personally.

Opposition parties have attacked the Government over the rise, with Scottish Labour describing it as a “reward for failure”.

The minister’s comments come as one of Scotland’s largest trade unions warned the Government of its impact on public sector workers.

In a letter to the First Minister, the Scotland Secretary of GMB, Louise Gilmour, said the increase was “unjustifiable”.

“This increase sends a clear message to our members, particularly the lowest paid in our public services who are still fighting for a £15 an hour minimum which was promised years ago,” she said.

“They have endured 14 years of Tory austerity, a global pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis where they watched the rich get richer during national and global crises whilst those on the front line of our public services – our waste workers, social carers and school staff to name a few – continued to attend their work.

“Now, at the first opportunity, their political leaders have stuffed their pockets.”

Ms Gilmour added that – as the First Minister is set to host a summit to tackle the forces of the far right next week – the decision was “hypocritical”.

“You will host a summit to counter the far right in Scotland. We are acutely aware of the dangers of the far right and their aim for an electoral breakthrough,” she said.

“However, it is these types of hypocritical actions from political leaders; and social and economic hardship which drives support for the far right.

“Living conditions must be addressed head on. Anything else is lip service which will repeat the failures of the past which produced the present political circumstances.”