IPSWICH MP Chris Mole said: “A colleague of mine in the House of Commons came up to me today and asked if it was our council that had made all the headlines about the salary for its new chief.

IPSWICH MP Chris Mole said: “A colleague of mine in the House of Commons came up to me today and asked if it was our council that had made all the headlines about the salary for its new chief.

“I cannot see how that kind of salary can be considered to be appropriate. When you compare Suffolk with authorities like Kent or Wandsworth it simply does not stack up.

“Looking at things objectively, the very highest salary a county the size of Suffolk should consider paying should be about £180,000. This kind of figure seems out of line with other authorities.”

The normally talkative Conservative MP David Ruffley did not want to comment on Mrs Hill's appointment, saying he did not know enough about it to have formed a view.

However Conservatives in Ipswich are known to be very annoyed about it.

One top Tory said: “This salary is ridiculous. We are supposed to be the party concerned about public spending yet we are giving this huge sum to one person.

“When the councils are shaken up in a couple of years time there won't be anyone in local government in Ipswich earning that sort of money.”

A spokesman for Number 10 declined to comment on the issue.