Extra £23,000 a year for shadow cabinet – but only if they win more seats
A council’s Tory shadow cabinet could be handed over £23,000 more a year – but only if the party manages to bag more seats at the next election.
Sandwell Council has agreed to pay an extra £2,858 a year to each opposition councillor forming its shadow cabinet – but only if the authority’s second-largest party holds at least 11 of the council’s 72 seats.
There are currently ten Conservative councillors sitting on Sandwell Council – just one short of the now agreed 11 that would entitle the party’s shadow cabinet to nearly £3,000 extra each a year.
If eight Tory councillors became shadow cabinet members, to match the ruling Labour cabinet, then the shadow cabinet would share an extra £23,000 a year.
Under the new rules, the payment would only be agreed if the opposition party has at least 11 councillors.
The independent remuneration panel (IRP), the body responsible for recommending how much councillors should be paid, had said paying shadow cabinet members extra money was a decision for the council – but recommended they should each be paid ten per cent of the leader’s ‘extra’ allowance when the opposition makes up at least five per cent of the council.
The move was backed at Tuesday’s full council meeting in Oldbury but only after an amendment from Labour which ignored the five per cent threshold recommended by the IRP and instead forced the opposition to reach 15 per cent before it was entitled to extra money.
Cllr David Fisher, leader of the council’s Tory group, accused Labour of “shifting the goal posts” and was “hellbent” on putting obstacles in the way, accusing his rivals of “punishing” the Conservatives.
Despite supporting the amendment, Cllr Fisher sarcastically said he looked forward to the threshold rising to 20 or 25 per cent next year.
Labour councillor Bob Piper, cabinet member for finance and resources, said he supported his opposite numbers being offered more money but the small numbers meant it was “unreasonable” to class them as a ‘proper’ shadow cabinet.
“We think there is something to be said for having a responsible opposition,” he said.
Cllr Piper said he could remember the British National Party (BNP) winning just a handful of seats in the past – and feared that only one or two more wins would have entitled the far-right party to form a shadow cabinet.
All 72 councillors receive the ‘basic allowance’ of £11,552 a year with the leader of the council Kerrie Carmichael picking up an extra £28,584.
The leader of the opposition is entitled to an extra £5,804 or £9,663 a year – depending on whether the next biggest political party has more than 10 elected councillors or not.
Cabinet members are entitled to an extra £17,412 for each role and extra money is given to councillors in various other roles such as chairs of committees and scrutiny boards.
Labour councillor Liam Preece, who represents West Bromwich Central, said: “I’m sure [the Conservatives] would agree with me that given all the points they have raised regarding council tax and green bin charges, now is not the time for councillors to be costing taxpayers any more money.”
Cllr Preece said Labour was giving the Conservatives “something to aim for” in next year’s elections.
“Perhaps they could try a bit harder,” he said. “It is not the Labour Party’s fault that the people of Sandwell have consistently elected Labour councillors to represent them. That seems to me to be the Tory party’s problem.”
