Swinney boosts ministers’ pay packets by 20% – Daily Business

First Minister John Swinney is under pressure to explain why he has handed his ministerial team a 20% pay rise.

Opposition MSPs say the additional £19,126 per annum will inflate ministers’ pensions and severance payments when they cease to be MSPs.

They are entitled to one month’s pay per year of service — based on final salary — when they step down.

Three cabinet secretaries — Shona Robison at Finance, Fiona Hyslop (Transport) and Mairi Gougeon, (Rural Affairs) are leaving Holyrood next year along with three junior ministers, Richard Lochhead, Natalie Don-Innes and Graeme Dey.

The rise means junior SNP ministers are now earning £100,575 and cabinet secretaries earn £116,125.

The salary hike will also see the total pay bill for 29 ministers junior ministers rise by about £500,000 a year.

After being contacted by the Mail on Sunday, Mr Swinney said he would personally forgo his own pay rise, which would have lifted his salary to more than £155,000.

The Scottish Conservatives said the pay rise may be a result of SNP politicians who expect to lose their seats at the Holyrood election next year trying to boost their pensions and payoffs before they leave.

Craig Hoy, the Scottish Conservative shadow cabinet secretary for finance and local government, said: “The huge salary increase John Swinney has given SNP ministers can’t be related to their performance in office, which has been uniformly dismal.

“That’s why so many Nats expect to be turfed out if they stand at the next election and many have already thrown in the towel.

“There’s bound to be speculation that this eye-watering rise is a way of boosting their pensions and payoffs and getting as much as they can from the hard-pressed taxpayer on their way to the exit.”

Dame Jackie Baillie, the Scottish Labour deputy leader, said: “While Scots are struggling, SNP ministers are being rewarded for their failure. It seems convenient that this increase could give a handsome bump to the golden goodbyes received by the long list of SNP ministers retiring at the next election.”.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Alex Cole-Hamilton, said: “SNP ministers may regret the timing of this pay overhaul, given the extra costs that households and businesses are counting this month. For so many Scots the cost of living crisis has never gone away.”

A Scottish government spokesman said: “Ministerial and MSP salaries are set and paid by the Scottish parliament. The MSP element of pay for ministers for 2025-26 will be identical to that of other MSPs.

“The ministerial element of pay has been frozen for 16 years at 2008-09 levels and this will remain in place for 2025-26.

“The first minister has made clear that he will forego the equalisation of the MSP element of his salary in order to avoid any perception that he benefits from his own decisions.”