Western Daily Press

MPs set for pay rise despite jobs misery

- Helen Capel Winscombe, North Somerset Tony Maskell Newton Ferrers

RICHARD Lloyd, the interim chair at The Independen­t Parliament­ary Standards Authority (Ipsa) says he had a “statutory duty” to review

MPs pay in the first year of each parliament.

I suggest they cut MPs’ salaries instead, as it doesn’t mean Ipsa has to automatica­lly give MPs a rise.

It was only this spring that MPs were given £10,000 each to work from home and help pay their staff, which was unfair when none of the general public who had to work from home received extra money.

MPs get more than enough extra perks, plus their salaries, and they don’t warrant or deserve a pay rise.

How inhuman can these faceless Ipsa people be and how can they be independen­t when the government is paying MPs’ salaries?

What about the statutory rights to give nurses and other low paid front line staff a decent pay rise who really deserve it, after all they have done and put their own lives at risk and are still doing so, during the pandemic?

I suggest if MPs are ‘forced’ to take this extra money, they donate it to the out of work, low paid and self employed who need the money far more than MPs do. Another undeserved pay rise will only make them even more unpopular with the general public. of which should have been devolved at the same time as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, perhaps after splitting England into several Swiss-style Cantons. (I know that would mean more bureaucrac­y, but now is the time to do it, having just freed ourselves from the arthritic bureaucrac­y of the EEC/EC/EU).

The only solution I can think of, so far, is to label products that totally or partly fail to meet UK standards should be labelled: “This food does not pass UK standards and is eaten at your own risk.”

 ?? AP/Evan Vucci ?? President Donald Trump throws face masks into the crowd as he arrives to speak during a campaign rally on Tuesday in Johnstown, Pennsylvan­ia
AP/Evan Vucci President Donald Trump throws face masks into the crowd as he arrives to speak during a campaign rally on Tuesday in Johnstown, Pennsylvan­ia

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom