The Tories said “the world has gone mad”, with 25 public employees earning more than twice as much as the Prime Minister and some earning six times as much.

The first Public Sector Rich List, compiled by the Taxpayers’ Alliance, shows that 87 public servants earn more than Tony Blair and 171 take home more than £150,000 a year. The high-earners include executives of big public sector corporations, including the BBC, Royal Mail and Network Rail, as well as NHS bosses, Whitehall mandarins and leaders of local authorities, regional development agencies and little-known quangos. Overall, their pay rose by 8.4 per cent last year.

Matthew Elliott, the chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be shocked at the scale of these pay awards. Large numbers of people in the public sector are effectively being paid City salaries. It is not surprising that taxes keep going up when the salaries for the public sector’s top salaries keep rocketing.”

The highest paid of all is Bob Kiley, the commissioner of Transport for London, who was brought from New York by Ken Livingstone to turn around the capital’s transport. The 71-year old American earned £1,146,425 last year, despite a controversial reign that has ended with his acting as a part-time consultant to the mayor. “London’s transport network, which is vital to the economy of the capital and the UK, is now in the best health for decades,” a spokesman said.

Alan Duncan, the Shadow Trade Secretary, said: “The world has gone mad. People should be rewarded for their competence and the risks they take. A lot of these payments seem crazily out of kilter.”

The second-highest earner is Adam Crozier, the group chief executive of Royal Mail, on £1.038 million last year. The former Football Association boss has turned Royal Mail from a loss-making enterprise to a profitable one, but has run into criticism for increasing the price of stamps and cancelling the second delivery. Of the top ten public sector earners, three work for Royal Mail, with David Mills, the chief executive of the Post Office, on £816,000 despite the furore over closing rural branches. A Royal Mail spokesman said that it did not comment on executive pay.

Media executives are well represented, led by Mark Thompson, Director-General of the BBC, on £619,000, followed by Kevin Lygo, the director of television at the state-owned Channel 4, on £565,000. Ten BBC employees earned more than £287,000 last year, while 13 members of the communications regulator Ofcom getting over £177,639. The most politically sensitive salaries are in the NHS, where hospital deficits are leading to job losses. Richard Granger, chief executive of IT for the NHS, earned £285,000, followed by Nigel Crisp, Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health, on £215,000.

The chief executives of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, NHS Direct, Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service, the Commission for Social Care Inspections, and the NHS Blood and Transplant Authority were all paid more than £150,000.

The Government insisted that pay levels were needed to recruit and retain quality staff. A spokesperson said: “Following decades of underinvestment in the public sector the Government has made record levels of investment to deliver the world-class public services the taxpayers of this country deserve. An effective pay policy will retain, recruit and motivate staff delivering public services.”

Some of the highest earners were leaders of little-known or troubled public agencies. Stephen Geraghty, the chief executive of the Child Support Agency, earned £180,000. James Stewart, chief executive of Partnerships UK, which encourages private sector investment in the public sector, earned £443,000. Stephen Inglis, of the National Biological Standards Board, earned £150,000. No Cabinet ministers, who earn £135,495, make the list apart from the Prime Minister. He is 88th, between Clare Dodgson, chief executive of the Legal Services Commission, on £188,000, and Vanessa Lawrence, director-general of Ordnance Survey, on £185,000.

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