MPs handed 10 per cent pay rise to £74,000 despite David Cameron’s objections
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) has confirmed MPs’ salaries will rise from £67,060 to £74,000 – a 10 per cent pay rise.
Ipsa was set up in the wake of the expenses scandal in 2009 to monitor parliamentary expenses, and is responsible for paying salaries and expenses.
The salary increase was approved despite David Cameron personally objecting to it, and some MPs saying it would not be “appropriate”.
Read more: David Cameron tells expenses watchdog to "think again" on MPs pay rise
Two cabinet ministers , Eric Pickles and Nicky Morgan, have previously said they will give the increase to charity.
Ipsa chairman Sir Ian Kennedy said MPs’ pay was a “toxic” topic “which had been ducked for decades”.
We have made an important change to the way in which pay will be adjusted annually. Instead of linking MPs’ pay to wages in the whole economy, it will be linked to public sector pay.
Over the last Parliament, MPs’ pay increased by two per cent, compared to five per cent in the public sector and 10 per cent in the whole economy. It is right that we make this one-off increase and then formally link MPs’ pay to public sector pay
Kennedy also said the rise will not cost taxpayers more as it was combined with cuts to expenses, pensions and severance payments for MPs.
Read more: A rise in MPs salaries makes MPs a little richer but make their job far more difficult job
Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:
Just a week after the chancellor rightly announced further pay restraint in the public sector, it is totally inappropriate for Ipsa to be pushing forward with this pay hike.
This unaccountable body is doing our MPs a great disservice: the invisible quangocrats at Ipsa may have made this regrettable decision, but the public will inevitably direct their anger at their elected representatives in Parliament.
And people across the UK are not very impressed…
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