MPs set for payrise next month

MPS will get a £2,212 pay rise on Friday, April 1, seeing their basic salary rise to £84,144 a year.

The 2.7% increase will take effect the same week as millions of workers are hit with a rise in National Insurance.

MPs pay was frozen last year due to the coronavirus pandemic but the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), which sets MPs pay, believes it should be in line with other public sector workers.

Richard Lloyd, chairman of IPSA, said: “This is the first increase in pay for MPs in two years and follows the average of increases across the public sector last year.

“It is right that MPs are paid fairly for the responsibility and the unseen work they do helping their constituents, which dramatically increased last year.”

Prime minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer have both said the increase should not go ahead at a time when families were undergoing higher bills and tax rises.

On a recent visit to Wokingham, the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey described the pay rise as “the wrong thing at this moment in time”.

Matt Rodda, Labour MP for Reading East, said: “I agree that MPs should not get a pay rise this year and would urge the independent body that sets MPs pay to reconsider their proposals.

“We have a cost of living crisis caused by the Conservative government’s failure to get a grip of both inflation and surging energy prices coupled with their deeply unfair National Insurance increase.”

Conservative MP for Wokingham, Sir John Redwood, has been contacted for a response.

In November last year, Downing Street confirmed government ministers would have their additional salaries frozen for the year ahead.

MPs who have jobs as ministers get paid additional salaries but Downing Street said a freeze was “only right” at a time of significant pressure on public services.