CORUS boss Sir Brian Moffat had a 130 per cent pay increase last year - despite sacking 2,150 Gwent steelworkers and freezing the pay of those he left in jobs.

The fact emerged on the same day that saddened workers left the last shift at the coke ovens at Llanwern steelworks in Newport - the effective end to the 'heavy' side of the site. And today, workers, union leaders and politicians are furious that Sir Brian, the man dubbed a "fat cat", the "butcher of steel" and an "executioner", was paid £558,846 in basic pay and fees last year compared with £302,818 for the previous 15 months.

After accounts were released yesterday, steel union the ISTC (Iron and Steel Trades Confederation) estimated that Sir Brian's pay was worth £243,000 in the calendar year 2000, making his increase last year a "staggering" 130%.

And the huge rise was announced as Corus workers across Britain are being asked to take a pay freeze.

A furious Newport West MP Paul Flynn said: "The wages of sin are colossal this year.

"The Judas Gold paid to Sir Brian Moffatt is his reward for wrecking the lives of thousands of steelworkers and destroying the job hopes of their children and grandchildren.

"It's a bitter coincidence that his half a million pounds handout comes on the day when steel and iron-making ends at Llanwern - Moffat's reward for doing the dirty work that other steel bosses refused to do.

"How do Corus bosses explain their wage freeze for workers while gifting fortunes to themselves?"

Phillip Hooper, a 53-year-old steelworker from Beaufort, Ebbw Vale, said: "I think it's disgusting especially when the company is supposed to be making losses. It just doesn't seem fair and it feels like they are rubbing it in."

Blaenau Gwent MP Llew Smith, whose constituents include many of the 700 workers axed at the doomed Ebbw Vale plant, added: "This is obscene when you consider Moffat and his directors have destroyed not just a plant but a community. If I had my way, Moffat would be spending time at Her Majesty's pleasure for crimes against the community."

Eddie Lynch, assistant general secretary of the ISTC steelworkers' union, added his condemnation: "It is absolutely disgusting that at a time when our members were being thrown on to the streets, the executives had their noses in the troughs."

The union called on the Corus committee which decides pay levels to resign - warning the news would anger workers, yet to decide what action to take over pay.

Sir Brian was chairman and chief executive of Corus for eight months of last year before Tony Pedder was appointed chief executive.

Explaining Sir Brian's pay hike, its report and accounts for 2001, published yesterday, said: "The company's policy on executive remuneration is geared to attracting, retaining and motivating individuals of the appropriate calibre and with the necessary skills to manage and develop the company successfully in each of the countries where the group has activities."

John Edmonds, general secretary of the GMB union, called on Sir Brian to hand back his pay rise to the company, saying: "This just beggars belief."