CABINET SALARIES

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 153, 25 March 1937, Page 11

CABINET SALARIES

Present Scale’s Anomalies

MR. BALDWIN’S ATTITUDE (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, March 23. The present salary scale of Cabinet Ministers is full of anomalies, and all parties have for long favoured a revision, which is expected in the Bill to come before the House of Commons tomorrow. The Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, who has lot it be known that he will retire after the coronation, has been actuated by a desire not himself to benefit from such legislation but to have the whole position clarified by the time his .successor is called to office. It is understood that the measure will propose that all Cabinet Ministers, with two exceptions, shall receive a salary of £501)0 a year, irrespective of the oliice they hold. The two exceptions are the Lord Chancellor and the Prime Minister. At present the Lord Chancellor receives a salary of £5OOO, with a further £5OOO for acting as Speaker of the House of Lords. It is not proposed to lower the present salary of the Lord Chancellor, and it is possible that the same figure of £lO.OOO a year will be adopted in the case of the Prime Minister. It is understood that there will also be two further scales of salaries for Ministers outside Cabinet and for Parliamentary Under-Secretaries.

It is reported by some newspapers that in recognition of his special position and the whole-time service he has to render in Parliament, a salary will be paid to the Leader of the Opposition —the figure mentioned being £2OOO.