Following Guido’s exclusive yesterday, which revealed pay packets of up to £270,000 for 42 NHS executives, a spokesperson for No. 10 has defended the salaries to the Lobby:

“The public will rightly expect every penny raised by the levy to be spent on cutting Covid waiting times and finally fixing the care crisis … NHS England is already working to be more efficient and cut waste.”

The spokesperson went on to say that the evidence of NHS efficiency is the fact that there were initially “211 commissioning organisations”, so the 42 executives running the new Integrated Care Services ‘significantly reduce[s]’ the total number of managers.

No. 10 also pushed back on calling these managers “bureaucrats“, claiming “these individuals will be responsible for a population of around a million people with billion pound budgets, and so we want highly qualified people who can deliver for the public.” A reminder that some will earn 80% more than Boris himself…