Downing Street has defended David Cameron's decision to award significant pay rises to his closest advisers in the year before he left office.
Civil Service World revealed this week that special advisers working for the former prime minister when he was at Number 10 saw their salaries increase by up to 24% following last year's general election, at a time when pay rises across the wider public sector remain capped at 1%.
As well as the pay rises, several of the advisers were handed gongs in Cameron's resignation honour's list, while the outgoing prime minister last month over-ruled Cabinet Office permanent secretary John Manzoni's objections and awarded redundancy packages to Number 10 advisers that were above what they were contractually entitled to.
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A spokesperson for the new prime minister, Theresa May, on Tuesday defended the pay awards, but stressed that the decisions were taken before May entered Number 10.
He said: "A decision was taken by the then prime minister that this reflected the change in scale and scope of the range of responsibilities going from coalition to single party government.
"The pay structure was put in place because of the changing nature of their jobs. It was a decision taken by the previous regime."
Asked whether May stood by her predecessor's decision, the spokesperson said: "It was a decision made by the previous regime. They were pay awards set in line with policy for people's changing roles."
Meanwhile, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party all seized on CSW's story to attack the former prime minister.
Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson said: "We knew David Cameron was guilty of cronyism by doling out honours to his mates and closest supporters, but the decision to award advisers huge pay rises in his final year in office is an insult to the thousands of hard-working civil servants who were forced to endure years of pay freezes under his government.
"It also resulted in Cameron's advisers receiving far larger pay-outs when they left their jobs in June. It's uber-cronyism, it's totally unacceptable and Theresa May should claw the money back."
Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said the move showed that Cameron's claims to be "cutting the cost of politics" had been "empty". "This is triple whammy – honours to cronies and a whacking great pay rise and then a bumped up severance package," said Farron.
"Compare this massive rise in a select few's pay to a 1% pay rise given to nurses, teachers and public sector workers and the 2% average pay award across the private sector in 2015. "This is frankly utterly shameless and the former PM should be ashamed."
Baroness Jones, who represents the Green Party in the House of Lords said: "It is disgraceful that David Cameron dished out double-digit pay rises to his special advisers while workers in the public sector saw earnings frozen in the name of austerity."
Garry Graham, deputy general secretary of Prospect, joined other civil service unions in condemning the payrises, which he said demonstrated "a staggering arrogance and disdain for those who work in the wider public sector".
"Public sector workers are being constantly hectored by ministers about the need to make efficiencies and have seen years of pay restraint and further attacks on their severance terms," Graham said.
"This feels like a government prepared to declare war on their own staff whilst making sure that their closest political allies are looked after. Hard working public servants will be sick to their stomach at this display of staggering hypocrisy”.