So much for Just About Managing ... MPs get inflation-busting pay rise

MEMBERS of Parliament are in line for another inflation-busting pay rise.

Salaries will rise by more than £1,000 next year – or 1.4 per cent, well above the 1 per cent cap imposed on other public sector workers. It means that by April their annual pay cheques will have risen by more than £9,000 in two years.

In 015, wages were hiked by 10 per cent after the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority – the watchdog set up after the expenses scandal – said MPs were underpaid. The decision sparked fury at a time of public sector cuts and pay restraint.

That led to their wages rising sharply from £67,000 a year to £74,000. Earlier this year their money went up again, this time by 1.3 per cent, to £74,96 . The latest raise will take salaries to £76,011. The announcement is likely to anger public sector workers like nurses, police and teachers, whose rises have been limited to a maximum of 1 per cent for four years.

The rise is linked to average overall pay increases in the public sector. It is higher than the 1 per cent cap because the calculation includes all payments on public sector payslips, including bonuses and promotion-related rises.

Ministerial salaries, which are controlled by Government, have been frozen to 0 0. Former sleaze watchdog Sir Alistair Graham said it would look ‘very generous’ to those who were still suffering austerity.

He told MailOnline MPs were in a privileged position because they were guaranteed decent rises. Sir Alistair, former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said: ‘So much of an increase in pay in such a short period of time must look very generous to public sector workers like teachers and nurses who are getting very small increases.

‘I don’t think you can have MPs in a privileged position when other key workers are being restricted to very tiny increases at a time when inflation is set to rise.’

An Ipsa spokesman said: ‘We will confirm the amount of any pay adjustment next year. We set out the mechanism for setting MPs’ pay for this parliament in July 015.’

Dave Prentis, general secretary of the union Unison, said: ‘If there is to be a limit on public sector pay it should apply to everyone. It’s time ministers lifted the pay cap.’