APRIL FOOL’S MP PAY RISE
Extra £2k a year from April 1st
MPS sparked fury last night after being handed a £2,000 pay rise from April 1.
They are set to enjoy a 2.7% wage hike, taking their basic salary from £77,379 to £79,468.
The increase is well above the current inflation rate of 1.8%.
It follows years of bumper rises, with MPs pocketing an extra 1.4% last year and 1.3% the year before.
The controversial figure was decided by the Office for National Statistics, and has been approved by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.
The rise is automatic and not subject to a vote in the House of Commons. Chairs of Commons committees are also getting a 2.7% boost to their additional salary, taking it from £15,509 to £15,928.
TaxPayers’ Alliance grassroots campaign manager Harry Fone lashed out: “A lot of taxpayers are going to be annoyed by this.
“In the private sector, pay rises and bonuses are rewarded based on performance, not for just turning up. Ipsa are once again out of touch with the public.”
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said: “It is an outrage MPs are rewarding themselves with an above-inflation rise while civil servants, who do some of the most vital jobs in society, are still subject to a cruel 1% de facto pay cap. “PCs are balloting 120,000 members for strike action over pay this summer and today’s news will only anger them further.”
South Shields MP Emma Lewell-Buck, said: “Most MPs are angry about the pay rise, we did not ask for it, we did not push for it and we don’t want it.
“The face of politics with the public is at one of its lowest and this is not going to do anything to improve that. It is just going to make the divide bigger.”