Wayne David, Labour MP for Caerphilly, has reacted strongly to suggestions that MPs may be offered a £10,000 pay increase.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) is considering awarding Members of Parliament a hike of £10,000 to their salaries after the 2015 General Election. This would take a Member of Parliament’s salary to over £76,000.
Mr David believes that the only salary increase should be 1%, in line with public sector workers. If MPs were awarded £10,000 Mr David says that he would give the increase to a registered local charity. This may be necessary because MPs are not allowed to vote on their own salaries.
Mr David said: “It is quite wrong that the Standards Authority is considering such a huge increase in MPs pay, especially at the time when most people are seeing a sharp reduction in their standard of living. I feel very strongly about this.
“Frankly, if any MPs want to earn such a large salary, then they should think seriously whether they should be MPs.”
Well said Wayne David! This rise is too much at the wrong time. What on earth are IPSA thinking of? Nobody in the firm I work for has had a pay rise for more than three years, which is not uncommon in the private sector. It is the employees of firms like this that pay MPs salaries via their taxes.
If Members of Parliament don't understand the delicate nature of their relationship with the voting public then perhaps, as Wayne says, they need to reconsider whether or not they are suitable for the job.
It would be very brave MP indeed who announced that this proposal to hike an MP`s pay by £10,000 was a good idea.
The ceo of Caerphilly voted for a pay rise that far exceeds this one.
MP's, local councillors and even AM's are overpaid. Just round all MP's salaries to £50k (£75k for those MP's who are ministers) £40k for all AM's (£50k for ministers) and £7.5k for all councillors (10K for those with chairman responsibilities or similar) and 20k for the council leader. It's leaner and streamer and more accuratelt reflects the work that is done by such people. Councilling is a part time, low workload job so £5k seems a bit on the steep side.
lol agree with mathew on the pay but noone will do it for that much. which charity will wayne give money to?
I agree with Matthew that all of these people are overpaid, however I think maybe they should be paid in conjunction with the size of the area and amount of people they represent, as some MP's AM's and Local Councillors wards are small and yet they get paid the same as those who represent a higher number of people. Also maybe they should have money deducted from wages if they do not regularly attend meetings.