I really don't think so. We can take a very example. Kate Forbes was on a graduate scheme at Barclays when she was elected MP. She was earning something like £27K at Barclays so she instantaneously increased her salary by more than double. If she had stayed in the scheme at Barclays and did really well at Barclays and made VP by now she might be on like £80K which is quite a bit less than the £115K salary she had as a minster.
Being elected MSP was almost certainly the best financial windfall she ever had by a huge margin. She far outpaced what her talents and abilities in the private sector dictated. There might be people out there willing to throw money at her now she was Finance Minister for Scotland but that would be folks hoping to buy her influence and network and we shouldn't reward our elected officials for holding us hostage like that.
elected officials in Scotland are paid more than fairly relative to their skills and abilities. |