MPs’ ‘disgraceful’ pay rise savaged by public as Hartley-Brewer questions new £81k sum
JULIA Hartley-Brewer has savaged UK MPs following today's decision to give politicians another pay rise.
MPs set to receive a 3.1% pay rise from April 2020
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) announced MPs will receive an extra 3.1 percent pay rise on Wednesday. The basic salary of an MP will now rise from £79,468 to £81,932 next month.
In a tweet, Julia said: “Hurray! Three cheers for MPs! And remember, if they have to self-isolate due to coronavirus, they get to keep their full pay! Yay!”
In agreement with the political commentator, members of the public took to Twitter to express their outrage at the news.
One person said: “Literally money for nothing.”
Another said: “MPs pay should be being cut, not raised.”
A third said: “I wonder how much would they get if they actually did their job.”
A fourth person said: “Anyone else think this is a disgrace?”
As well as criticising the increase in pay, some referenced the lack of MPs who were present in the Commons to hear the announcement.
One person said: “Huge numbers of them in Parliament earning that pay rise.”
James Lyons wrote: “They didn’t even bother showing up to hear about their pay rise.”
The increase represents a real-terms increase above the current level of inflation which is currently 1.8 percent.
MPs will also receive increased expenses to cover the cost of staffing their respective Parliamentary offices.
This year’s increase is the latest in a series of rises for MPs.
There was a 2.9 percent boost in 2019, 1.8 in the previous year, 1.4 in 2017 and 1.3 in 2016.
On top of their basic salary, MPs also receive an additional salary for serving as chairs of select committees and ministers.
Select committees are a small group of MPs or members of the House of Lords set up to investigate a specific issue.
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Chairs to the committees will now be paid an extra £16,422, an increase from £15,928 in April 2019.
IPSA interim chair Richard Lloyd said: “Our review of MPs’ staffing budgets in 2019 found demands on MPs’ offices were high, with staff doing difficult and stressful casework with constituents on a very wide range of problems.
“There was often high staff turnover, with salary levels below comparable roles elsewhere, based on independent benchmarked evidence.
“In many MPs’ offices, relatively little time or money was spent on staff training, wellbeing and development.
“As a result, we have provided additional funding in MPs’ 2020-21 staffing budgets for staff training and welfare, security, and changes to the salary bands and job descriptions for MPs’ staff to bring them into line with the jobs they actually do.”
IPSA made the announcement but has no role in setting ministerial salaries.