A politician has vowed to turn down a controversial pay hike of up to £10,000 a year.
Despite a likely public outcry, an official review is set to recommend that salaries for our MPs in Westminster should increase by about 15 per cent to up to £75,000 after the next general election.
The findings by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) comes in the wake of the expenses scandal and as many in the public sector are experiencing real term cuts to their pay.
While some Sussex MPs refused to rule out accepting the wage rise, Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas became one of the first politicians in the country to reject the hike. The country’s only Green MP said: “At a time of economic crisis, with so many of our constituents struggling to make ends meet, the proposal is utterly wrong.
“Like many MPs, I support the idea of an independent body to manage MPs’ salaries and expenses away from interference by politicians, but IPSA isn’t doing itself any favours with these hugely out of touch proposals.”
Sir Ian Kennedy, the head of the regulator, is set to make an announcement on proposals sometime this month. But it is widely rumoured the recommendation will be to increase a backbench MP salary from £66,000 to £75,000.
This was after an Ipsa survey earlier this year showed that seven in ten MPs believe they are underpaid compared with other professionals.
Any decision by Sir Ian cannot be overturned by the Prime Minister because MPs gave up the power to determine their own salaries in 2009.
First published at the Brighton Argus
1 comment:
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