Welsh Tory leader calls for cap on public sector ‘fat cat’ salaries

Ella Groves, ICNN Senedd Reporter

Welsh Conservative leader Darren Millar has called for a public sector pay restraint bill to curb “unacceptable salaries for public sector fat cats” in Wales.

Speaking in the Senedd on Tuesday October 13, Mr Millar said families across the country are continuing to face a severe cost-of-living crisis while senior managers enjoy executive pay packets.

Mr Millar said senior leaders in publicly funded bodies enjoy “pay packets that people in our country could only dream of”, adding: “What’s really galling is that the worse their organisations seem to perform, the better the pay packet seems to be.”

Pointing to Transport for Wales, Mr Millar highlighted that its chief executive earns nearly £250,000 a year, despite the operator being “one of the worst performing rail companies across the whole of the United Kingdom in terms of cancellations”.

He also targeted Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, noting its chief executive receives £262,500 annually despite running emergency departments with the “worst performing emergency departments and longest waiting times in the country”.

Mr Millar urged the Senedd to introduce legislative caps to “prevent excessive salaries for senior managers paid by the public purse”.

First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth agreed that public sector pay should “absolutely” reflect performance, but dismissed the Conservative leader’s comments as “faux outrage”.

“There’s a real irony here that the Conservatives choose to focus on high salaries when tax cuts for the highest earners are always among the driving forces of the Conservatives’ agenda,” Mr ap Iorwerth said.

He said tax cuts for top earners do “nothing whatsoever to help people in Wales who are living with the challenges of the cost-of-living crisis.”

Mr ap Iorwerth added: “On performance-related pay, the Conservatives have precisely nothing to show for 27 years in this Parliament.”

Government efficiency

The debate expanded as other opposition members pressed the Welsh Government on public spending efficiency.

Reform MS Iain McIntosh urged the First Minister to publish clear targets demonstrating government savings and effectiveness.

Mr McIntosh added: “Government efficiency cannot just mean spending more money more efficiently; sometimes, it actually means having to spend less”.

Responding, the First Minister explained simply spending less does not mean something is more efficient or more effective.

He continued: “I absolutely agree with the member that it’s not measuring how much you spend, it’s what you do with the money.

“And that also goes on whether you’re putting efficiency drives in place for ideological reasons, or whether you’re doing it in order to get more out of the system.”

Conservative MS Natasha Asghar told the First Minister that people need more than “warm words, new strategies, and talking shops”.

She said: “They actually want to see improvements in the areas that matter most to them and they want to see their money spent wisely.”

Ms Asghar criticised Plaid Cymru’s programme for government, describing it as 70 pages of “pipe dreams” that was “very light on delivery”, echoing Mr McIntosh’s calls for specific targets to reduce waste.

But Mr ap Iorwerth warned against cutting budgets purely for political reasons.

“To ideologically drive down spending for the sake of it doesn’t help the people of Wales,” the First Minister said. “What helps the people of Wales is using money wisely, carefully and setting a clear trajectory for the kinds of changes that we want to deliver for them.”

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