“Call me what you want but I am full time mayor with a full-time commitment
“There are 168 hours in a week and for eight of them I spend sitting in front of patients.”
Those were the words of mayor Dr Nik Johnson when I interviewed him more than a year ago.
He was responding to questions as to how he manages to continue working for the NHS whilst serving as mayor of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CAPCA).
The CAPCA board was denied hearing him repeat those words day as he was – quite properly -excluded from debate over the report of an independent panel looking at his mayoralty allowance.
The independent panel had recommended a pay rise to £86,121 from next year for Dr Johnson, and it was approved unanimously by the CAPCA board.
The panel noted there were “significant reasons” for recommending the increase.
They based their recommendation on a 2019 review which recommended an allowance of £80,000 per annum be payable to the mayor and that the indexation factor be set as the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Today’s report to the CAPCA board heard that the methodology used in determining the allowance was the same as used elsewhere.
Cllr Chris Boden, leader of Fenland Council said he was “uncomfortable” about the recommendation but supported it since it was an independent panel that recommended it.
He agreed it would be “exceptionally easy to make party political points” but it was inappropriate to question the panel’s recommendations.
Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald, leader of Peterborough City Council, said he was a “great advocate” of independent panels.
But he felt the template used, and the report published, was for a “typical mayor” working in the role full-time.
He said it was “well documented” the mayor works one day a week for the NHS, and it was “up to the mayor whether it considers it full-time (working for the combined authority)”.
Cllr Fitzgerald said people expected the mayor to be working a five-day week for CAPCA.
“He should come out and say whether he is doing a full-time position -I am not going to make a judgement.
“I am sure the mayor works more than 37 hours a week, but he should come out and say.”
Cllr Bridget Smith, leader of South Cambs District Council, said that if she was the parent of a sick child “I would be grateful an experienced practitioner continues to work in the health service”.
Deputy mayor, Lewis Herbert, who chaired the debate, said councillors did not work a 9am to 5pm day. Often, they worked long hours either before 9am or into the evening.
Cllr Fitzgerald added that he was “not casting aspersions on Nik – it is up to him how he chooses to justify it”.
He added: “I’m just flagging it as they will be some press interest”.
Cllr Herbert told him: “You are entitled to make comments, and you did make comments”.
Last year one former Conservative councillor, concerned that Fenland may not get investment, took to social media to express his view about the mayor continuing to work within the NHS.
“Anyone who can abandon sick and dying children wouldn’t have too much of a problem abandoning the north county,” wrote Jonathan Farmer.
Mr Farmer is a former mayor of Wisbech.
The only other criticism has been from Fenland and Cambridgeshire councillor Steve Tierney, also of Wisbech.
He tweeted – misleadingly – of hearing “increasing rumours that Mayor Dr Nik Johnson is going for a huge hike in his mayoral allowance.
“Huge pay rise during costs of living crisis and after loving millions of pounds of government funding? Surely not”.
Mayor Johnson, of course, had no part whatsoever in the setting up or findings of the independent panel.
In my interview with him last year, he said he sees himself “as the doctor elected to be mayor”.
He continues to conduct eight hours weekly of “standard outpatient care” and to go back and enjoy “what I have done for over 30 years”.
The mayor said most people had received him positively since winning the May election, recognising his “real life experience than rather than having followed a traditional political route”.
Dr Johnson said whenever he’s asked, he has been able to explain the dual roles and says explaining to people face to face has been seen nothing but a positive response.
He says working in the NHS and the cross organisational work that involves gives him “a unique take on becoming leader of the Combined Authority”.
And whilst refusing to respond to any criticisms, he says simply: “I am a children’s doctor” and maintaining his registration is important as it is for others like him who have entered politics.
He cited as an example his NHS colleague, Dr Caroline Johnson, the Conservative MP for Sleaford, who continues to work “on a flexible contract as a consultant paediatrician by North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust.
