www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/a...er-cent-8701383.html
All in it together? MPs WILL get a £10,000 pay rise worth up to 12 per cent
Regulator to announce award, with automatic annual increases to follow
MPs will be handed inflation-busting pay rises of £10,000 a year – worth up to 12 per cent on top of their current salaries.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) is expected to announce that backbench MPs will in future be paid £75,000 and that will then rise automatically every year in line with average earnings. But the pay rise will offset that increase with a crackdown on perks such as meals on expenses and an end to their generous final salary pensions.
The regulator, who took over control of MPs’ pay from Parliament in 2010, will argue that, overall, the new package will only cost the taxpayer a few hundred thousand pounds a year more.
But the prospect of a pay hike is certain to spark anger against a background of austerity and public sector wage freezes. The Ipsa chairman Sir Ian Kennedy admitted last week that the 1 per cent cap on public sector pay rises made the job of reviewing MPs’ remuneration more difficult.
But he insisted there was “never a good time” to deal with the issue and warned that avoiding an increase could create another expenses-style crisis as politicians sought to top up their salaries.
The deal to be unveiled this morning is expected to back a 12 per cent rise from the current level of £66,000, to take effect after the general election in 2015.
From then on wages will rise annually in line with average UK earnings, a mechanism that the regulator hopes will ensure the situation is resolved for the long term.
However, the £15 in expenses available for dinner when the House sits beyond 7.30pm will be scrapped – saving hundreds of thousands of pounds a year. There could also be tighter rules on using taxis and restrictions on claiming running costs for second homes, such as contents insurance.
“Golden goodbye” resettlement grants of up to £65,000 that used to be handed to departing MPs will not be brought back.
Instead, those defeated at an election could be entitled to redundancy similar to other public sector organisations.
The proposals will go out for consultation before Ipsa finalises the arrangements in the autumn.
Some MPs have already indicated they would personally decline the rises.
However, it would be almost impossible for the House of Commons to reject the measure overall because it would mean clawing back powers over pay from Ipsa.
In a blog for The Spectator website, the Tory backbencher Conor Burns said it was the “most imperfect” time for a pay rise and questioned whether the timing represented “errant genius or malice” on Ipsa’s part.
“All MPs who are doing their job to any percentage of excellence know that our constituents are feeling very concerned for the future,” he wrote.
“Any spare money they have is going into repairing domestic debt and yet with rising petrol prices, food costs and utility bills not that many have much spare money at all.
“So this week with the backdrop of Conservatives tearing lumps out of Labour on cash and influence and Labour responding by attacking the Conservatives on funding from business, we may see the independent body responsible for setting MPs’ pay recommend a £10,000 pay increase. Leaving aside for a moment whether it is warranted, what exactly would this be saying to the public? Can we seriously on the one hand say that we need public sector pay restraint (the private sector is largely self-frozen), that we must all make sacrifices to repair the economy and reduce the deficit if at the same time we accept a large increase to our basic pay?”
The Labour leader Ed Miliband announced that he would ban MPs from taking on lucrative second jobs if his party were to come to power.
However, David Cameron said he had no intention of following suit, saying he believed that outside experience was useful in the House of Commons.
