DEDICATED National Trust staff are stuck on miserly wages because cash is being squandered on subsidies to aristocrats, a trade union claimed yesterday.

In true outdated Downton-style, the Trust is feathering the nests of those upstairs while failing to provide a decent income for their workers downstairs.

The Prospect union revealed that landowners who signed over their estates to the Trust controversially still receive cash handouts from the charity — and are allowed to live in the mansions rent free.