Commons salaries will rise by 2.8 per cent over the next financial year, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) has confirmed.
At present, MPs receive £91,346 of taxpayer cash every year alongside expenses – which is set to rise to a little over £93,903.
Multiplied by 650, that amounts to a more than £1.6million-valued pay rise – and it comes just one year after MPs were given a 5.5 per cent salary bump.
Reacting to the news, John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be frustrated that while their own income is squeezed, MPs will face no such hardship.
‘MPs’ pay should be tied to GDP per capita, so that their earnings rise only when the country prospers,’ John O’Connell said
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“Despite overseeing a soaring tax burden and crumbling public services, Britain’s politicians are once again being rewarded despite their litany of failures.
“MPs’ pay should be tied to GDP per capita, so that their earnings rise only when the country prospers.”
When the rise was first floated in February, O’Connell said it would be “a bitter pill to swallow given politicians of both front benches have for years hammered the living standards of taxpayers”.
Ipsa said the decision was in line with wider Government pay recommendations for public sector workers.
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The watchdog is required to review MPs’ salaries within the first year of a new Parliament, by early July.
And on Monday, it said it would hold a further consultation on the determination of MPs’ pay for the rest of the current parliamentary term in the coming months.
Also today, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said he was “not aware that MPs can accept or reject pay rises” – and was “obviously up to every MP what they do with their salary”.
He added that Labour was “continuing the freeze on ministerial pay” which has been in place since 2010.
On Wednesday, the Chancellor is expected to confirm as many as 10,000 civil service job cuts as part of a major £2billion Whitehall savings drive
HOUSE OF COMMONS
The increase comes as the Government gears up to slash public sector spending across the board – just days after taking an axe to NHS England and Britain’s soaring welfare bill.
On Wednesday, the Chancellor is expected to confirm as many as 10,000 Civil Service job cuts as part of a major £2billion Whitehall savings drive in her Spring Statement.
Rachel Reeves has already ordered senior civil servants to reduce departmental administrative budgets by 15 per cent over the next four years. The estimated £2.2billion annual savings will be redirected to “frontline” services, according to the Chancellor.
“People want to know we’re getting value for money,” she said.
