Brexit job shunned as £160,000 pay ‘too low’

Whitehall’s top mandarins have been accused of “living in a different world” after they suggested the Government was unable to recruit its first choice for a key Brexit job because the £160,000 salary was “too low”.

Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union, said the Department for International Trade failed to hire Jonathan Fried, a Canadian, as chief trade negotiation adviser because of the salary they offered. John Mann, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw, said: “It is part of the problem in politics … that a salary above that of the prime minister is seen as too low. These people live in a different world to the rest of us.”