A politician has resigned from the panel which sets Leicester city councillors' pay after criticising how its decisions are made.

Former Tory leader Roman Scuplak said the independent panel met for just one afternoon before recommending the incoming elected mayor's salary be more than £65,000 and to give all councillors a £250 rise.

He said members set out with an agenda to hike the salary of Leicester's first elected mayor, who is due to be elected on May 5.

It will be £20,000 higher than the current council leader's pay.

The panel is made up of three ex-councillors and a university academic, and chaired by local Chamber of Commerce chief Martin Traynor.

Mr Scuplak, who previously served on the city council for more than 20 years, said: "Whilst serving as a councillor, I had always assumed that the panel carried out a detailed examination before making its recommendations.

"However, I was amazed at the approach on this occasion. To describe the review as shallow, is crediting the panel with a greater depth of investigation than is justified.

"It met for a single afternoon, with no papers circulated in advance and very little opposition opinion allowed."

He added: "There was an agenda from the start to make sure that [Leicester South MP and Labour's mayoral candidate] Peter Soulsby would not lose out financially if he became mayor, which is why I believe it was set at an MPs salary rather than the current leader's allowance.

"Increasing the mayoral allowance means that the cabinet allowances should have been decreased by the same amount, but that was rejected by a majority of two to one on the panel.

"The effect therefore of the panel's decision is that we are paying £20,000 per year more in allowances to the mayor and cabinet for doing precisely the same as the leader and cabinet do currently.

"I have resigned because I don't want to play a further part in such a flawed process."

Mr Traynor said the review was usually more in-depth but had to be condensed due to the tight timeframe, after a late decision to switch to an elected city mayor by the council.

He said: "The review was not as in-depth as previous years because of the short time we had to decide on remuneration for the coming year. However we only made two changes to the allowance scheme. This is in contrast to some years where we've carried out a root and branch reform.

"I stand by the fact that the nearest equivalent position to a mayor is an MP, which is why the salary is recommended at that level.

"I disagree with Roman's claim that the decision was made with Peter Soulsby in mind. It was not."

The recommendations are due to go before the full council on Thursday for final approval.