Row over fees for 'Kiley's cronies'

Ken Livingstone's key spending plans have been thrown into jeopardy following revelations that his Transport Commissioner is paying massive salaries to an imported band of "cronies".

London Assembly members are threatening to block the Mayor's budget unless he reveals details of the salaries and fees being paid by Bob Kiley to the handpicked group of associates he brought over from the US.

Yesterday leaked details of some of the payments revealed that three people brought in from New York are likely to be paid a total of more than £1million this year.

Jay Walder, the director of finance who was Mr Kiley's former chief of staff on New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority, is being paid £200,000 a year plus an accommodation package worth £1,500 a week.

Maggie Boepple, Mr Kiley's former spin doctor and now head of integration at Transport for London, receives £175,000 a year, plus £1,600 a week for "rental and relocation". Tom Amenta, a projects manager who worked in the finance group in New York, receives £100,000 a year plus £500-a-week expenses.

Among others benefiting from apparently generous packages is Steve Polan, a lawyer recruited to fight the Government's Tube privatisation. He is estimated to make £250,000 a year.

Eric Ollerenshaw, the Tory leader on the London Assembly, said: "We don't have much power over the Mayor but we have power over his budget. He can't go on demanding council tax rises while he is paying huge salaries to people reducing London to chaos."

A spokesman for the Mayor's office said they do not discuss individual salaries and that details of some payments were already in the public domain.