Courtesy Daily Mail
By TIM SHIPMAN
Plans to hand MPs an inflation-busting 11 per cent pay rise sparked a civil war in Westminster last night, with ministers and backbenchers at loggerheads over whether to pocket the cash.
The Cabinet, Labour frontbenchers and Lib Dem ministers are all set to reject plans by an independent watchdog to raise their basic salary from £66,396 to £74,000 – nearly three times the average wage – from 2015.
Senior figures in all three parties branded the proposals ‘preposterous’, ‘unthinkable’ and ‘wholly inappropriate’ at a time of public sector pay freezes. Many are expected to hand the extra cash to charity.
David Cameron has told Ipsa the move to raise MPs' salaries is inappropriate
Former Home Secretary Jack Straw claims people from modest backgrounds will be put off by low salaries
During Ipsa’s consultation process over the summer, 69 per cent of MPs, questioned anonymously, said they deserved a pay rise. On average, they judged they were worth £86,000 a year. One in five wanted more than £95,000.
Against: Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander told Andrew Marr he will not take the money
Also in disagreement with the quoted figures
Disagree Nick Clegg has also spoken out against the independent watchdog's findings
Also unhappy: Labour leader Ed Miliband and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg have also blasted the figure
David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband all told Ipsa to change its plans. But it has ignored the complaints and said MPs need the extra money as they have fallen behind comparable jobs in the civil service and local government.
Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show he would not take the money – a view echoed by aides to Mr Clegg and Business Secretary Vince Cable.
Mr Alexander said: ‘I think it would be wholly inappropriate for MPs to get such a large pay rise at a time when every other public sector worker sees their pay rises capped at 1 per cent.’
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said: ‘This is not the moment’ for a big pay rise.’
David Cameron is expected to say on Thursday that the Cabinet will hand the pay rise to charities and other good causes. Labour sources said the shadow cabinet is likely to give away the extra money.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said Ipsa appeared to have come to its conclusions ‘entirely out of any context of the real world’.
Several MPs including shadow health secretary Andy Burnham and Lib Dem pensions minister Steve Webb said they would forego the pay rise.
The clash has divided parliament as some MPs claim they wont take it and others say they need it
But a handful publicly defended the move. Former Labour Home Secretary Jack Straw warned that failing to pay MPs more would damage the diversity of the Commons.
‘You will go on recruiting people of some talent who have family money or who have got many fewer family responsibilities but you won’t get, importantly, recruitment from people of modest backgrounds.’
Tory MP David Ruffley said: ‘It is an inconvenient truth that MPs’ pay has fallen behind other equivalent occupations for some years, such as the judiciary.’
But there was also anger that Cabinet ministers like Mr Hammond, who earns £134,000 a year and made millions from business, are expected to call on MPs not to take their pay rise.
One Tory MP said: ‘It’s easy for ministers to tell the rest of us not to take the money when some of them are paid more than twice what backbenchers get.’
Sources close to Ipsa said the package would be cost-neutral, with pensions cuts paying for the higher salary.
But short of passing a law to abolish Ipsa, it won’t be possible to hand back the money. One insider stressed: ‘They’ll get the money. What they choose to do with it is a matter for them.’
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