The Labour-backed Plymouth Knows Better campaign are in hot water again over misleading claims about the Mayor of Salford Paul Dennett increasing his own pay. Allowances are recommended by an independent panel and Mayor Dennett is donating his pay increase to charity anyway.
On the 6th June, the anti-Mayor campaign claimed on their Facebook page that the Mayor of Salford had given himself a £23k pay rise. The Labour-backed campaign group stated that "this is exactly the kind of self-serving system we don’t want in Plymouth."
In reality, City Mayors cannot change their own allowances. Pay rises must be recommended by an Independent Remuneration Panel and approved by a majority of councillors, as set out in The Local Authorities (Members' Allowances) (England) Regulations 2003.
There is no mechanism for a City Mayor to increase their own allowance without the agreement of councillors.
The Plymouth Labour anti-mayor campaign's claims are also at odds with Plymouth City Council's own information statement for the referendum, which simply states that
The Elected Mayor would be entitled to receive an allowance, the amount of which would be approved by the Council after recommendations by its Independent Remuneration Panel in the same way as allowances are approved for the Leader and other elected members.
Salford City Council meeting
Plymouth Plus approached the Mayor of Salford's office for comment, who referred us to a meeting of Salford City Council on Wednesday 21st May 2025 where the changes were agreed.
The meeting documents confirm that Salford City Council's Independent Remuneration Panel had made the recommendation which was then agreed by councillors - not the Mayor.
Nic Beech, who chairs the five-member panel stated:
"In formulating our recommendations, the Panel has taken into account the financial challenges facing all local authorities, balancing this with increases in the cost of living."
The panel's report recommended a 11.8% increase in basic allowances for councillors. The panel also recommended that the City Mayor's allowance would be tied to a multiplier, set at seven times the basic allowance for a councillor - reflecting their executive responsibilities. When it came to the vote in Salford's council chamber, councillors backed the change.
But that was not all. In his speech before the vote, Salford Mayor Paul Dennett stunned councillors by committing to donate his salary increase to charity:
With regards to my own pay, I don't think I should earn more than parliamentarians and what I would propose to do, is whatever the difference is, to give that to third sector charities or community organisations within the city of Salford.
A Mayor donating all or part of their salary to local causes is not unusual. In 2021, the Labour Mayor of Doncaster Ros Jones donated half of her allowance to tree planting.
Advertising the false claim
More concerningly, Plymouth Labour anti-Mayor campaigners have put hundreds of pounds behind this false claim. The Meta Ads Library is a database of all ads currently running across Meta's platforms to improve transparency in advertising. Data from the Meta Ads Library shows they have spent over £200 on two Facebook ads to promote the post.
The loss of trust
Plymouth and Salford collaborate through the Key Cities network alongside Exeter and Portsmouth. Plymouth City Council Leader Tudor Evans recently co-authored a Key Cities report with Salford's Deputy Mayor, highlighting shared challenges in coastal communities.
Has this latest Plymouth Labour controversy damaged the once productive partnership between the councils? Given that the professional relationship now sits awkwardly alongside a Plymouth Labour campaign willing to misrepresent Salford's democratic processes for their political gain.
The bottom line
These easily debunked claims from the Labour-backed anti-Mayor campaign raise further questions about honesty and integrity in campaigning.
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