MPs start nine-week summer break with £1,100 bonus

MPs will be given a £1,100 summer handout days after the beginning of their nine-week holiday from Parliament, it has emerged.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority yesterday confirmed that MPs’ pay will increase from £67,060 to £74,000 as part of a package of changes to their remuneration.

Ipsa has said that the 10 per cent salary increase will be backdated to May 8, the day after the general election. It means that MPs will in their August pay package receive £1,100 extra. Par- liament rises for its summer recess on July 22 and MPs will only return to Westminster on September 7. There has been regular criticism of the amount of holiday MPs receive.

David Cameron had repeatedly called on Ipsa to reconsider the pay rise.

However, Downing Street this week confirmed that he will still accept the money and declined to say whether he will give the money to charity.

Mr Cameron is facing anger over the 10 per cent wage increase for MPs being announced just days after George Osborne, the Chancellor, used his Budget to confirm that public sector pay rises will be capped at 1 per cent for another four years.

However, Ipsa withdrew plans to link their pay to UK-wide average earnings in future, a move that could have left MPs £23,000 better off by 2020. Instead it will be restricted to average rises in the public sector. Sir Ian Kennedy, the chairman of Ipsa, said that MPs’ pay had been a “toxic” issue.

He insisted the rise will not cost taxpayers any money because it is being combined with cuts to expenses, pension and severance payments for MPs.

He said: “Parliament gave Ipsa the power to deal with the vexed issue of MPs’ pay – independent of Parliament and Government.

“Pay has been an issue which has been ducked for decades, with independent reports and recommendations from experts ignored, and MPs’ salaries supplemented by an opaque and discredited system of allowances.

“We have made the necessary break with the past. We have created a new and transparent scheme of business costs and expenses, introduced a less generous pension scheme, where taxpayers contribute less and MPs make a higher contribution, and scrapped large resettlement payments.

“We have consulted extensively on MPs’ pay, and with today’s decision we have put in place the final element of the package for the new parliament.”

A number of ministers including Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary, have indicated that they will give their rise to charity.

In 2013 Michael Gove, now the Justice Secretary, said that Ipsa could “stick” their pay rise.

‘We have created a new and transparent scheme of business costs and expenses and a less generous pension’