A top cabinet minister's pension package is so generous it would make the fattest cats in business "green with envy", the Liberal Democrats have said.

Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine should now cut back his pension package according to Lord Oakeshott.

The capital value of this pension package is around �2m Lord Oakeshott

The Lib Dem pensions spokesman discovered the extent of Lord Irvine's pension entitlement through a Parliamentary written answer.

He said: "The Lord chancellor's pension is uniquely generous.

"The moment he was appointed, he became entitled to an index-linked pension of �90,000 a year for life, a widow's pension and a tax free lump sum of �180,000.

"The capital value of this pension package is around �2m - and that's on top of any private pension Lord Irvine has earned from his glittering career at the Bar.

"Why should the lord chancellor get this vast golden hello from public funds on day one, rather than year by year?

Give up benefits?

"Lord Irvine opposes elected members in the House of Lord because they may require "financial benefits". He should give up some of his own."

Lord Oakeshott then called on Lord Irvine to slice his pension package so that it was worth "no more than the �1.4m ceiling for tax relief proposed in his government's Pensions Green Paper.

"Or he could retire before April 2004 - otherwise Gordon Brown will tax him at 65% on anything over �1.4 million."

The Lord Chancellor's department has so far declined to respond to the Liberal Democrat claims.