Principal’s salary was in excess of £220,000

Education Secretary Michael Gove wrote to the School Teachers’ Review Body last year to say teachers should not earn more than £142,500.

Mr Wilkins has been paid £182,000 for more than a year-and-a-half as principal of Outwood Grange Academy. In the year before the school became an academy he was paid sums exceeding £220,000, according to Wakefield Council. On top of a salary of £130,000, the authority identified a payment of £97,300 which was made by Outwood Grange to his private company, Challenge Leadership. The payment was said to have been made for National Leaders in Education work in Harrogate and Doncaster.

Mr Wilkins’s spokesman said: “It was estimated recently that there are approximately 100 state school headteachers who are paid a salary of £150,000 for running a single school and some who earn £180,000.” He said a significant salary was offered at Outwood Grange as it was one of the largest schools in the country and it required a high level of expertise.

The GMB union last year found only one state school head in Yorkshire, Dr Kelvin Simmonds at the Danum School, in Doncaster, earned more than the Prime Minister. However, their report did not include heads of academies whose salaries were not included in council accounts.