Welsh Tory leader urges cap on public sector salaries
Darren Millar urged a pay‑cap bill for public managers, sparking a Senedd clash over performance‑linked salaries as Wales faces a cost‑of‑living crisis.
Welsh Conservative leader Darren Millar has tabled a call for a public‑sector pay restraint bill, urging the Senedd to cap senior managers’ salaries funded by taxpayers. Speaking on Tuesday, 13 October, Millar warned that families across Wales are still grappling with a severe cost‑of‑living crisis while “public sector fat cats” draw executive pay packages he described as “unacceptable”.
He singled out Transport for Wales, noting its chief executive draws almost £250,000 a year despite the operator being labelled one of the worst‑performing rail companies in the United Kingdom for cancellations. He also highlighted Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, where the chief executive receives £262,500 annually while the board runs the nation’s “worst performing emergency departments and longest waiting times”.
“What’s really galling is that the worse their organisations seem to perform, the better the pay packet seems to be,” Millar said. Millar urged legislators to introduce statutory 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 remarks 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,” he added. He argued that 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”.
Ap Iorwerth also pointed out that the Conservatives have “precisely nothing to show for 27 years in this Parliament” on performance‑related pay.
The debate broadened as opposition members pressed the Welsh Government on spending efficiency. Reform MS Iain McIntosh called for the First Minister to publish clear targets that demonstrate savings and effectiveness, insisting that “government efficiency cannot just mean spending more money more efficiently; sometimes, it actually means having to spend less”.
In response, the First Minister explained that spending less does not automatically equate to greater efficiency or effectiveness. “I absolutely agree with the member that it’s not measuring how much you spend, it’s what you do with the money,” ap Iorwerth said.
He added that efficiency drives must be rooted in outcomes rather than ideological motives or the desire to extract more from the system.
Conservative MS Natasha Asghar told the chamber that people need more than “warm words, new strategies, and talking shops”, insisting they want tangible improvements and prudent use of public funds. She criticised Plaid Cymru’s programme as a 70‑page “pipe dream” that is “very light on delivery”, echoing calls for specific targets to curb waste.
Ap Iorwerth warned against budget cuts driven solely by political ideology, stating that “to ideologically drive down spending for the sake of it doesn’t help the people of Wales”. He concluded that the priority should be “using money wisely, carefully and setting a clear trajectory for the kinds of changes that we want to deliver for them”.