SNP leader John Swinney has insisted approving a £20,000 pay rise for ministers' MSP salaries while hiking taxes is about "fairness". It emerged at the weekend that Mr Swinney had decided to scrap a 16-year policy of ministers not taking increases to the salary they receive as MSPs.

The change means ministers will see a near-£20,000 boost to their pay packets to £74,507 a year. The pay announcement came as part of an answer to a question in Holyrood and was not publicly announced. A freeze on ministerial salaries, however, has been maintained. Mr Swinney said he will not take the increase given his position as the "decision maker". Asked about the change, Scotland's First Minister said: "The decision I've taken is one that just applies a principle of fairness across the Scottish Parliament. I think that's the right decision to take so that members of the Scottish Parliament are able to draw the salary to which they are entitled as MSPs."

He added: "No other ministerial pay arrangement has been frozen across the United Kingdom for 16 years other than the Scottish Government which is the decision that I have sustained.

"And I've made a decision about my own circumstances, because I am the decision-maker and I think that puts me in a different category to my colleagues."

The Mail on Sunday reported the First Minister had initially decided to take the increase to his MSP salary, but changed his mind after being approached by the newspaper.

Mr Swinney's decision means annual salaries for Cabinet secretaries will be about £116,000. Junior ministers will be paid more than £100,000.

Scottish Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Craig Hoy, said: "The huge salary increase John Swinney has given SNP ministers can’t be related to their performance in office, which has been uniformly dismal.

"Nationalist politicians have made a mess of everything they touch – our NHS, education, housing, policing and transport – while stifling the economy, pushing through savage cuts and making Scotland the highest-taxed part of the UK.

"That’s why so many Nats expect to be turfed out if they stand in at the next election, and many have already thrown in the towel.

"There’s bound to be speculation that this eye-watering rise is a way of boosting their pensions and payoffs, and getting as much as they can from the hard-pressed taxpayer on their way to the exit."

Local government leaders in Scotland have already announced a series of inflation-busting increases to council tax bills. Falkirk Council is imposing a 15.6% rise, which is the highest in Scotland.

Council tax bill rises in Scotland will typically be at least 8%, though this year's rise comes after a two year freeze.