BAT's top executives paid £4.5m

British American Tobacco's top three executive directors received total remuneration packages worth just under £4.5m last year, the annual report reveals.

Martin Broughton, the chairman, saw his package leap 25 per cent to £1.9m, while Paul Adams, the managing director, received a 52 per cent boost to the value of his total salary package, which increased to £1.07m.

Paul Rayner, who joined the group as finance director at the start of last year, was paid £1.38m. This included almost £700,000 of allowances and benefits in kind (such as a car and private medical and personal accident insurance), which were included as part of his package to lure him and his family to the UK from Australia, where he previously worked.

Mr Broughton, 55, is eligible for a pension pot of £8.8m – worth about £700,000 a year. He has been with the company since 1971 and is not due to retire for another four years. The Tory MP Kenneth Clarke, BAT's deputy chairman, collected a salary of £125,000, an increase of 5 per cent.

BAT saw its pre-tax profits rise last year by just 2 per cent to £2.1bn, but its shares were one of the best performers on the FTSE 100 index and tobacco was the best-performing sector. The proportion of Mr Broughton's salary that is related to how well BAT performed increased to 54 per cent from 49 per cent last year, in line with the cigarette maker's policy.