Lloyds boss challenges claims he is 'greedy' for getting £6.3m package

The head of pay at Lloyds Banking Group has defended the package earned by its chief executive, telling MPs: "People like a winner."

Stauart Sinclair, who chairs the remuneration committee at Lloyds, told the work and pensions committee that staff at the bank did not resent Antonio Horta-Osorio's arrangements.

Last year, he picked up a £6.27m pay package that included a slashed pension contribution of 33% - down from an original 46%.

The average Lloyds worker is on about £30,000 and typically receives a pension contribution of 13%.

Mr Sinclair denied any suggestion of a rift with staff over pay when he told the MPs: "When I go out to see people who are on £22,000, £30,000, £40,000, they see Antonio as a winner, because he brought this bank back from the brink.

"People regard that as a big achievement and there's a charisma around Antonio which actually means a lot of people say 'good luck to him - he works incredibly hard and I don't resent the money'."

Frank Field, the MP who chairs the committee, hit back - saying Mr Horta-Osorio "certainly is a winner".

He asked the chief executive: "How do you justify your greed?"

Mr Horta-Osorio responded: "It's very difficult to accept the word 'greed' that you used ... when my total fixed compensation, at £2.8-something-million... is lower than the group chief executive of HSBC.

"I strongly believe... there is in the market a remuneration value in the market for each position."

He also confirmed that when he cut his pension contribution to 33% in February, he was awarded an extra £150,000 in fixed share awards over five years in what has been slammed as a stealth pay rise to offset the reduction.

Lloyds returned to private hands in 2017 - almost nine years after its taxpayer bailout at the height of the financial crisis.

Mr Horta-Osorio took over in 2011 and has been credited with driving its recovery.