URGENT reforms are needed, a think tank has warned, after it revealed that fat-cat bosses at Britain’s top firms pocketed their biggest average pay packet on record last year.

According to research published today by the High Pay Centre, the median pay for a FTSE 100 chief executive was £4.19 million in 2023, up from £4.1m in 2022.

The highest-paid boss was AstraZeneca’s Pascal Soriot, who was paid £16.85m, followed by Erik Engstrom, chief of analytics giant RELX, who trousered £13.64m.