MPs get £7,000 pay rise

An MP’s salary will rise around ten per cent to £74,000 per year, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) has announced. The deal will be backdated to May.

Leading figures in all political parties including Prime Minister David Cameron have opposed the move. The Labour leadership contenders are among the MPs who have pledged to hand the extra money to charity.

The report also said future rises will be pegged to public sector pay, expected to be one per cent, and items that can claimed on expenses have been reduced.

IPSA chairman Sir Ian Kennedy said the decision had been made independent of parliament or 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,” he said.

Kennedy also insisted IPSA had listened to the concerns raised by members of the public.

“Over the last Parliament, MPs’ pay increased by 2 per cent, compared to 5 per cent in the public sector and 10 per cent in the whole economy. It is right that we make this one-off increase and then formally link MPs’ pay to public sector pay,” he added.