How much does the Prime Minister get paid?

17 January 2017

“How much does the prime minister get paid?” was a hot search topic when Theresa May moved into Number 10, according to Google.

The Prime Minister is paid £150,402 a year. This includes the basic salary for a member of parliament which is currently £74,962. It doesn't factor in the value of the Prime Minister's flat in Downing Street, or her other official residences.

Since April 2016 the Prime Minister has been entitled to a slightly higher amount, £152,532.  But the government is freezing the pay of Cabinet ministers until 2020. This means that ministers, including Mrs May, don’t take the increases in the salary they’re technically entitled to.

David Cameron would also have been getting £150,402 by the time he left office. That’s an increase from the £142,500 he initially took, so his pay ended up back at about the same level as the previous Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who was paid £150,000.

Mr Brown was actually entitled to over £190,000 but voluntarily reduced his salary at some unspecified point before the 2010 election.

By comparison, the average salary for full time employees in the UK was about £28,200 last year.

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