Tesco directors' pay bill increased by more than 18 per cent last year, with the group's nine top earning executives each pocketing more than £1 million.

Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive, saw his pay and benefits package rise by more than 15 per cent to £2.84m.

And the group's directors' cut made equally spine-chilling viewing – the bill for executive and non-executive directors was up from £12.99m to £15.39m according to the company's annual report.

However, Tesco pointed out that rewards were not reserved for the top staff with all 220,000 staff in Britain sharing £148m in incentive bonuses and share schemes.

Last year the company opened 62 new stores in the UK and 18 new hypermarkets overseas. About 21,000 jobs were created around the world, including 11,000 in the UK. And operating profit has increased from £965m to £1.5bn in the past four years.