A row has erupted over pay at Lambeth Council, with the leader of the opposition granted a pay rise he says he didn't ask for.

Leader of the Green opposition Councillor Jonathan Bartley was voted an allowance of £16,207 - nearly three times the £5,613 the opposition leader in the previous administration was paid.

But he said he only asked for £5,000 for himself and £5,000 to be split between his deputy and his whip.

Councillor allowances are how much money a councillor gets for fulfilling their roles and responsibilities, including chairing and sitting on committees.

They are set within independent guidelines before being cleared by the council and voted on at full council meetings.

Back-channel conversations can take place between political parties to negotiate who gets what.

In an email sent several weeks before the council meeting where pay was decided, seen by the South London Guardian series, Mr Bartley asked council leader Lib Peck for £5,000 from the members allowances budget to be distributed to the Green group, and for his pay to be set at £5,000.

"We asked them to reallocate some of the money for the Green group as we have five members, and wanted our deputy leader and whip to get £5,000 total," Mr Bartley explained.

"Last year the conservative leader got £5,000 and that is what I was asking for and that is what I wanted.

"They completely ignored that and trebled my allowance," he said.

But deputy leader Jack Hopkins said the Greens were being "duplicitous" and had asked for more money, including in an email sent by Green councillor Scott Ainslie a day before the meeting.

In the email, seen by the South London Guardian series, Cllr Ainslie said the roles of opposition leader, deputy leader and whip would need funding for a six-day work week to be fair.

Mr Bartley said his colleague was making the point that there had been no negotiation, and was not asking for an increase in pay.

He said by the time Cllr Ainslie sent the email the decisions on allowance allocation had been made.

Currently, the Greens are allowed to split the £16,207 granted for Cllr Bartley, Cllr Hopkins said.