MPs' Shocking Pay Rise!

When the British people get asked, which profession is the least trustworthy, the answer is nearly always politicians. Politicians’ have had a continual decline in popularity since the scandals of the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Their popularity took a huge hit in 2009 when the expenses scandal broke, it turned out many politicians had cheated the system. MPs turned out to be claiming for all sorts of ridiculous things such as duck houses (no seriously, one MP did claim money for a duck house). After this scandal MPs decided to take the decision of their pay and expenses out of the hands of parliament and into a totally independent body.

This action certainly seemed like a good idea at the time, but now it has turned around to bite them. At the moment MPs get paid £66,396 per annum, which is more than double what the average Brit ears at £26,500. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority has decided that MPs need to get paid more! IPSA has revealed that it will increase the salary of MPs to £74,000, a rise of 11%! This is more than five times inflation and much higher than the 1% rise cap being experienced by everyone else in the public sector. All three leaders of the main political parties are opposed to the rise as they find it politically embarrassing. At a time when most ordinary people are struggling, a pay rise seems offensive. Yet due to IPSA’s independence, they are powerless to do anything about it.

What I believe is that the pay of MPs should be capped at double the median wage of the country. This would give them more of an incentive to raise the wages of ordinary people, plus still give them a healthy salary. If that were to be implemented right now it would mean MPs would get an annual salary of £53,000.