A controversial bid to award £15,000 worth of pay rises to Greenwich councillors has been pushed through despite claims it was unconstitutional.

Councillors agreed to award an extra £5,000 to the chief whip as well as £10,000 towards the creation of two project assistants.

Project assistants funded by the taxpayer will assist cabinet members to develop new policies.

The Conservatives said they had not been consulted on the changes, and that council leader Dan Thorpe had proposed the idea to placate infighting in his Labour group.

Cllr Spencer Drury said at a full council meeting last night: “The problem is it suggests to the public we are behaving in a selfish party-political way and not for the common good.

“This is normally a matter where one would expect the leaders to negotiate because it is important the public do not draw the conclusion we have our snouts in the trough enriching ourselves with public funds.

“This reeks of politicians behaving in a selfish way, placing themselves before the public good. The appearance of us rewarding ourselves damages every single one of us.”

Opposition councillors called on the Mayor to “strike down” the proposals, claiming that changing allowances at this point in the year broke the council constitution.

Conservative leader Matt Hartley said the move was in response to the leader shelving an idea for a political assistant, and that it was a “sorry state of affairs” that allowances would be increased for roles with “next to no detail” on what they will do.

“Is this contemptible motion not in actual fact the story of an embattled leader of a divided Labour group shoring up his own position with public money. It’s a disgrace”, Cllr Hartley said.

Council leader Cllr Thorpe said it was a “conspiracy theory” that the proposals were being brought forward to appease fighting within the Labour group.

He said: “There’s no problem with infighting over here. People have different views and that is allowed. This grandstanding for the gallery does all of us a disservice.

“Many councils across London do employ political assistants and Greenwich has been an entirely different place along that. Your group was asked about it and I’ve had feedback that some of your group were in favour of it. To say this is all a Labour idea is a misrepresentation of the facts.

“Which Government was it that came along and said ‘sorry, we won’t look after old people’ and left it to the taxpayer? Your Government, not ours. There’s one party opposite that refuses to deal with the big issues we face.

“This is not about putting an extra burden on our taxpayers, this is about getting the job done and delivering for people.

“For whatever you want to say, all of us around this chamber work really really hard to make sure things happen for local people and frankly, with an ambitious and forward-thinking manifesto such as ours, we have a lot to get on with.”

Local councillors do not get a salary, instead they are given “allowances”, which varies depending on responsibility.

The chief whip currently gets a special responsibility allowance of £5,623, whereas in nearby Southwark the whip receives upwards of £15,300.

The proposals to use the budget’s underspend were given the green light at last night’s meeting after a legal aid confirmed they did not break the constitution.