Taking a rise out of the taxpayer

The inflation-busting award - denounced as "incredible" - will make the Lord Chancellor the highest-paid politician in Britain. with an annual salary of 202,736.

The Prime Minister earns 175,414, while Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, and other Cabinet ministers earn 127,791. In Scotland, Jack McConnell, the First Minister, earns 120,744.

Lord Irvine’s pay hike was announced on the same day as teachers in England were told to expect an increase of 2.9 per cent, exactly in line with inflation. Servicemen, including those potentially heading for Iraq, will get 3.2 per cent.

Michael Howard, the shadow chancellor, said: "There is clearly one rule for hard-working public servants and another for New Labour cronies

"Some private soldiers on the way to the Gulf have been told they will receive less than an extra 500-a-year. Yet Derry Irvine gets a whopping 22,000-a-year increase.

"The need to tighten belts has clearly not been extended to the Lord Chancellor."

The Fire Brigades Union, which is campaigning to increase the 21,500 annual salary of firefighters, said the increase was "incredible".

As head of the judiciary, Lord Irvine’s salary is linked to that of judges, while the pay of other ministers and MPs is tied to senior civil servants.

Judges were awarded an across-the-board settlement of 2.75 per cent, on top of the 4.4 per cent hike they will receive from April as the second stage of last year’s pay rise.

But Lord Irvine will receive a further 10,000 on top of this, to keep his pay ahead of that of the senior judge in England and Wales, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf, who this year enjoys the extra 10,000 "to redress slippage over recent years between his post, as the senior full-time serving judge, and that of the Cabinet Secretary, as head of the Civil Service", said Downing Street. By law, the Lord Chancellor must receive 2,500 a year more than the Lord Chief Justice.

At a time when pensions and savings are in peril as the stock market nosedives - and so soon after renewed criticism of Lord Irvine’s 2 million pension package - the announcement was, at best, poorly-timed.

It is the latest in a series of scandals that have dogged Lord Irvine.

In 1997, he accepted a 1,800 pay increase to see his salary rise to 140,665, while other government minister opted to forego theirs.

The post of Lord Chancellor not only comes with a handsome salary but also a very desirable official residence in the Palace of Westminster, designed by Augustus Pugin.

So, for Lord Irvine, the embarrassment was not where he lived, but what he put in it.

To upgrade his living quarters, his order included a 14,000 dining-table, eight mirrors costing a total of 32,768, and 57,233 worth of handcrafted wallpaper - all at public expense.

In 1998, when the 590,000 restoration and refurbishment was complete, the residence was opened to selected visitors. One of them, Stephen Bayley, remarked: "Pugin himself would have deplored the pompous extravagance. You can pay your respects to Pugin without this gormless interpretation."

Lord Irvine went on to provoke yet more controversy by "raiding" a Scottish art gallery to provide wall hangings for his residence. He acquired 87 works of art from the National Gallery of Scotland - and took many more on loan from three British galleries.

He was accused by Tories, Liberal Democrats and Scottish Nationalists of "looting" the national archives.

But again Downing Street sprang to his defence, although ministerial colleagues who admire his brains were forced to admit that street-smart instincts were clearly missing in Lord Irvine. "Derry lacks guile," conceded one.

Proof, if it were needed, of his lack of political nous came a few months later when Lord Irvine likened himself to Henry VIII’s mighty adviser, Cardinal Wolsey, for the network of Cabinet committees he chaired.