Simon Johnson, the chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council, is earning more than Prime Minister Theresa May, according to the organisation's latest accounts.

His pay was in the region of £170,000-£179,000 last year – compared to the PM's official salary of around £143,500.

While the pay of the JLC's top earner was recorded as up from £140,000-£149,000 in 2014, the organisation explained that Mr Johnson had actually taken "no pay rise" in either 2014 and 2015.

In an explanatory note produced in addition to the accounts , the JLC said that until April 2014, Mr Johnson had been engaged as a consultant rather than an employee and the 2015 account were the first to "reflect his full annual salary".

It added that "in order to get the highest possible calibre candidate to lead the JLC, the trustees benchmarked the chief executive's salary against other professional and trade associations, both inside and outside the community."

Although the JLC's spending dropped from around £3.3 million in 2014 to £2.9 million last year, this is largely due to £650,000 in 2014 paid for the renovation of the Kantor King Solomon/Wohl Ilford Primar Schools' campus in Redbridge, which is now complete.

The grant to the Bicom research organisation for "cultural education" dropped from around £684,000 to £491,000 last year. The JLC explained that Bicom no longer sought the same level of grant funding.

The JLC distributed £100,000 to 20 organisations for counteracting boycotts and the delegitimisation of Israel.

It had also funded staff in the Bicom-linked We Believe in Israel campaign, the Board of Deputies and the Union of Jewish Students as well as funding three delegations of local councillors to Israel.

The organisation increased spending in its educational arm, Partnerships for Jewish Schools, from £584,000 in 2014 to £791,000 in 2015.

But the JLC said that its core team was now "smaller and more efficient" than in previous years.

Its new external affairs division, to deal with the impact of "Israel-related issues" on the British Jewish community, began operating in 2016.

Sir Mick Davis, the council's chairman, said that it had "put together an outstanding team of experts in their fields, who we believe are providing a world-class resource to our members and the community as a whole".

He was "confident that we will continue to provide excellent support to our members as well as facilitating the strategic responses that a vibrant community like ours needs to guarantee its growth and ongoing success."