Tax row over Royal Mail golden hello

THE new boss of Royal Mail paid no UK tax on a £5.8m ‘golden hello’ before he took the top job.

Rico Back was paid the money as part of a deal to renegotiate his contract – triggering outrage from campaigners who felt he was being given special treatment.

It has now emerged that the pay-out was not covered by British tax law because it was paid by a Netherlands arm of Royal Mail.

Back, 64, is a tax resident in Switzerland.

The revelation came as MPs on the Business Select Committee savaged Orna Ni-Chionna, head of Royal Mail’s pay-setting committee, for failing to clamp down on corporate excess.

Royal Mail suffered a revolt over bosses’ pay from 70pc of shareholders at its annual meeting in July, and chairman Peter Long quit months later.

Labour MP Rachel Reeves, chairman of the committee, said that the £5.8m payment to Back would have covered the salaries of more than 250 postmen.

She said: ‘No UK tax was paid on this astounding multi-million-pound deal, a sum paid for by UK customers as they post their letters and parcels, and an amount which would appal postmen and postwomen, and the wider public. As people who use the postal service, we all have an interest that the money we pay is well spent by you.’

The £5.8m was given to Back so he would agree to cancel an lucrative contract while in charge of Royal Mail’s Amsterdam-based parcel firm GLS.

This contract had seen him paid more each year than then-chief executive Moya Greene. Ni- Chionna said the pay-out in July 2017 had been negotiated for several years and was unrelated to his appointment as chief executive on a base salary of £640,000 and annual bonus of up to £1.3m.

She added that investors revolted over a separate £2.6m golden goodbye for Greene which was felt to be far too lucrative.

Ni-Chionna said: ‘I really am embarrassed that we got this engagement with shareholders so wrong. I want to assure the committee that we won’t do that again.’

Royal Mail shares rose 2.7pc, or 9.1p, to 350.3p.