Commons select committee chairmen have secured a £12,000 boost to their earnings in recognition of their additional workload.

Following "a significant increase in staffing" of select committees, Peter Hain gave his backing to the move in a Commons debate on Thursday.

And the measure was later approved by the narrow margin of 81 votes to 53.

Hain had told MPS that the Senior Salaries Review Board "had taken a cautious approach" to the issue and would look at possible increases.

The Commons leader said the payments, restricted to those who chair departmental scrutiny committees, would cost a total of £420,000 when pensions contributions were taken into account.

Barry Sheerman, however, said the real need was for additional money to fund "extra capacity for help in the office and not for a salary".

Hain argued that select committee chairmen should be rewarded for the work they do in holding the government to account.

"What we are doing is rewarding those who place government ministers such as myself under scrutiny," he said.

"We want to strengthen the democratic basis of the House of Commons and strengthen its scrutiny role."

Shadow Commons leader Eric Forth dismissed suggestions that MPs were climbing aboard the gravy train.

"This should not be interpreted in any way as this House lining its own pockets," he said.

He added that the approach "was rightly cautious" and welcomed the forthcoming review of the pay and responsibilities of select committee chairmen.

Forth went on to call for the principle of additional pay to be extended to members of the chairman's panel - who chair standing committees and sittings in Westminster Hall.

Labour's Andrew Mackinlay called for a "period of quarantine" to prevent former ministers hopping from government office to the committee corridor.

He went on to argue that "in a legislature people should be paid the same wage for doing the same job" even if they perform different functions.

"I think it is very dangerous when you start creating this disparity between some members of parliament and others," added Mackinlay.

The SNP's Alex Salmond said the system was an "extension of patronage" which would work against the minority parties.