On Wednesday, the disclosed that Ms Gray received a pay rise after the election, lifting her salary to £170,000 a year – about £3,000 more than the PM.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds dismissed suggestions the prime minister had personally intervened to increase Ms Gray’s salary, saying ministers had “no input” in what their advisers were paid.
“There’s a process that exists, it’s a civil service process, it hasn’t changed. It’s wrong to say there’s any kind of political input in there or people set their own pay bands.
“I don’t even get to set the pay for my own advisers… I think there are and always have been officials who are paid more than politicians in our system and that hasn’t changed,” he told Breakfast.
Mr Reynolds acknowledged that leaks about issues in government such as Ms Gray’s pay were “annoying” and “a permanent frustration”.
Mr Reynolds also told Sky News that Ms Gray was “getting on with the job of this government, delivering on our promises, I think that’s what matters more than anything else for anyone who works in Downing Street”.
