A single GP has earned more than £700,000 and four more have annual earnings from the NHS of at least £400,000, it was revealed today.

The doctors are thought to be senior partners in large group practices or GP federations.

The figures were obtained by The Times from the NHS Business Services Authority and represent the earnings declared by the doctors related to their NHS pensions.

Its request for information found another 11 GPs earning more than £300,000 and a further 193 earning more than £200,000.

The British Medical Association said the doctors represented a “tiny minority” of GPs who were managing “large businesses.”

A spokesman said: “The latest comprehensive figures from NHS Digital show that GP pay has been in decline for years despite many GPs working harder than ever before to deliver more appointments to patients in an increasingly under-pressure NHS.

“The tiny number of individuals listed as earning extremely high incomes are likely to be in an extremely small minority. They are likely not to be working on the front line treating patients, but managing large businesses instead.”

But Alex Wild, from the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said it was a sign of “something going badly wrong” with GP pay.

He said: “Few would begrudge paying doctors well, but it’s clear a minority are creating empires and raking in far more than could have been imagined by those who proposed the arrangements.

“The chancellor allocated yet more money to the NHS at the budget last month, but when a GP can earn eight times as much as the average consultant you have to question whether greater emphasis should be placed on making the most of existing resources.”