Kate Josephs: 'It's gone on far too long' - Sheffield Council boss paid £55,100 for 100 days at home

Kate Josephs confessed on January 14 to attending a lockdown party in her previous job and has been on leave ever since.

Her base salary is £201,292 which works out at £16,700-a-month, or £551-a-day.

Her 100th day at home was April 25 when she would have accumulated £55,100 - dwarfing the average Sheffield pay of £25,187 a YEAR.

The huge amount of money-for-nothing at a time of severe budget cuts will put further pressure on councillors to decide her fate.

Businessman David Slater said the issue had ‘gone on far too long’ and called for her to be reinstated.

He added: “As far as Sheffield is concerned she is the right person for the job. I don’t see that a glass of wine changes anything.

“If I were council leader I would have decided whether to back her or sack her within one day. I would have decided to keep her and possibly put her on six months probation. At the moment we are a rudderless ship.”

He also raised the prospect of an expensive pay out if she were sacked.

He added: “If she’s dismissed from a job in which she’s done no wrong, that will be an interesting one for the lawyers.”

Two weeks ago, The Daily Telegraph reported that Kate Josephs had been fined £50 for attending her own leaving do as director general of the Government’s Covid Taskforce in December 2020.

Council leader Terry Fox has urged her to declare the truth but she has not publicly commented.

The council has brought in an external investigator to report to a cross party committee to help them decided what to do.

The investigator’s name, remit and cost is being kept secret.

In an ITV interview last week Sheffield South East MP Clive Betts said she was doing an ‘excellent job’ and had ‘a lot of cross party support’.

Miriam Cates, Conservative MP for Stocksbridge, said she ‘absolutely agreed’.

She added: “We need to consider people who are high calibre and have a lot to offer this country – do we really want to end their careers?”

BUSINESS NEWS: Nature reclaims Ski Village as talks continue

BUSINESS NEWS: Queen crowns 11 brilliant businesses

BUSINESS NEWS: Landlords could be forced to let out vacant shops

To continue holding the powerful to account and giving people a voice, The Star needs you to subscribe, please