MPs may get £10k pay rise: But they say: 'It's not snouts in the trough - if you pay peanuts you get monkeys'
MPs are in line for a pay rise of £10,000 a year – but they may have to give up their gold-plated pensions.
Annual salaries would increase from £65,738 to more than £75,000 in a move being considered by Commons officials.
A senior MP said he feared they would be accused of having their ‘snouts in the trough’ but argued: ‘Voters may not like it, but if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.’
Pay rise: MPs may be in line for a £10,000 salary increase but will have to give up their gold-plated pensionsThe rise is expected to be recommended next month in a report by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), which is now in charge of MPs’ pay and expenses.
Well-placed sources say IPSA believes MPs’ wages are well below those of equivalent professionals working in London such as accountants.
According to some insiders, officials believe a pay rise as high as 25 per cent – taking salaries to £82,172 – is needed to give MPs a fair deal.
But it is thought they may recommend a figure closer to £10,000 to try to minimise the anticipated public outcry.
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And to sweeten the pill for the public they are likely to demand that MPs give up their guaranteed pensions and switch to a less generous scheme.
Officials say that MPs will have to use most, if not all, of their expected pay rise to match their current pension deal.
Fearful: The prospect of a pay increase for MPs could cause David Cameron a headache at a time when he is encouraging austerity in the public sectorDowning Street will be alarmed at the prospect of a big rise for MPs on the grounds that it would undermine David Cameron’s ‘we’re all in it together’ campaign to encourage other workers to make do with no increase or minimal rises of one per cent.
When MPs were asked by IPSA how much they thought they should be paid, one in three said they deserved more than £86,000 a year.
Speaker John Bercow has already warned the Prime Minister not to block a big pay rise for MPs because he is independently wealthy.
Mr Bercow said MPs resented party leaders blocking all increases in pay to ‘appease the public’ and urged them ‘not to feel the temptation to interfere’ with IPSA’s ruling.
Mr Cameron ordered MPs to vote down a one per cent rise last year and instructed Ministers to waive salary increases.
Mr Bercow said: ‘There is some historical resentment that party leaders who either had a higher salary by virtue of their office or who have had access to other sources of finance have been very quick to tell ordinary MPs what they should and shouldn’t be paid.
‘When you’ve got other means from whatever source, it’s quite easy to do that and I don’t think it’s clever or brave.
‘When IPSA decides what the rise – no rise, or low rise, or high rise – should be, it should take effect immediately.
‘The party leaders mustn’t do what they’ve always done. The generals have always abandoned the troops and engaged in a Dutch auction to appease the public by saying, “Well of course, I won’t take a rise. I will tell my colleagues that they shouldn’t take a rise”.’
In 2009, Mr Bercow said MPs should earn as much as a GP or council boss, many of whom earn in excess of £100,000, as their job had comparable ‘breadth, scope and contact with the public’.
A senior MP said: ‘We know we are going to see headlines of “snouts in the trough” but the issue of MPs’ low pay has to be resolved.
‘We got into this mess 25 years ago because we were frightened of being criticised by the press and public for giving ourselves a proper pay rise.
‘Instead, we were encouraged to claim more expenses under the counter. The expenses scandal ended all that and now we are left with a pitiful pay cheque. We are thousands of pounds a year worse off on a pay level that is a joke to any self-respecting London professional.
‘Voters may not like it but if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. Unless our pay goes up, the decline in the quality of people prepared to become MPs and Ministers will increase and the whole country will suffer.’