Ministers have "no political input" in the pay of their advisers, the Business Secretary has said, as he defended Sir Keir Starmer amid criticism of his chief of staff's £170,000 salary.Jonathan Reynolds said there was a "long-standing process" for determining earnings for aides and dismissed suggestions that the Prime Minister had personally intervened to increase Sue Gray's pay.Disclosures that Ms Gray received a pay rise after the election which means she earns more than Sir Keir have sparked

Ministers have "no political input" in the pay of their advisers, the Business Secretary has said, as he defended Sir Keir Starmer amid criticism of his chief of staff's £170,000 salary.Jonathan Reynolds said there was a "long-standing process" for determining earnings for aides and dismissed suggestions that the Prime Minister had personally intervened to increase Sue Gray's pay.Disclosures that Ms Gray received a pay rise after the election which means she earns more than Sir Keir have sparked a row within Government and prompted opposition critics to demand answers about how the decision was made.Mr Reynolds told Sky News: "I think it's important people understand that the pay bands for any official, any adviser, are not set by politicians. There's an official process that does that."I don't, for instance, get to set the pay for my own advisers who work directly for me. So there's a process, we don't have political input into that."He added: "Sue Gray is getting on with the job of t