Brian Coleman and large sums of money – again

The Evening Standard reports:

‘Marmite mayor’ with four different jobs earns £104,000 plus expenses
A leading London Tory at the centre of an expenses row is on a six-figure pay package funded by the taxpayer.

Brian Coleman will become Mayor of Barnet in May after he was nominated by fellow councillors – taking his annual pay for a variety of public roles to £104,503.50.

He is also a London Assembly member and chairman of the capital’s fire authority. As a council mayor, he will be able to claim thousands of pounds extra in expenses.

It comes after Mr Coleman was criticised for claiming £2,275 travel expenses for eight months in his role as chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.

He also ran up a taxi bill of £8,231 in his position as Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden, including a £656 bill on one day.

£104,000 is, of course, a six-figure sum; in other words, just the sort of sum that Eric Pickles has previously criticised in local government. I wonder if he’ll be slamming Brian Coleman for being over-paid, or is it another case of one rule for Conservative Party members (lots of money is good!) and one rule for everyone else (lots of money is bad!)?