Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy was paid £5.2m in salary, bonus and shares last year.

The boss of the UK’s biggest retailer also saw the value of his pension pot jump 16% to £15.9m.

Leahy now owns 7.8 million shares in Tesco, according to the retailer’s annual report. These shares would be worth £32.4m at the current share price.

Tesco’s senior management team were paid a total of £24m in salaries and bonuses in the year.

The bumper pay out comes after Tesco revealed a 10% increase in underlying pre-tax profit to £3.4bn in the year to February 27.

The grocer revealed yesterday that more than 216,000 staff would share a £105m bonus pot Tesco’s biggest ever shares scheme.