Cameron plans ministerial pay cuts
Friday, 14 August 2009 12:00 AM
By Liz Stephens
David Cameron is rumoured to be planning significant salary cuts for ministers if his party win the next election.
Senior Tory sources told The Guardian the cuts may be as high as 25 per cent - which would cost senior figures nearly £20,000 a year.
The salary cuts are part of a strategy to make cuts in public services more palatable to the taxpayer.
Currently, cabinet ministers make £144,520 - that would go down to £124, 581.50 if a 25 per cent pay cut were realised.
One source said, "If you're a political party that is looking to make significant cuts in public spending then you have to be able to show that the political classes are going to take a financial hit."
However, senior Tories are apparently alarmed at the prospect and some are even allegedly questioning whether they could afford more than one term working in a Cameron administration if the cuts were to go ahead.
Mr Cameron recently made members of his shadow cabinet agree to relinquish their second jobs prior to the general election.
The move threatens to drive a wedge between those Conservative members who are independently wealthy - such as Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne - and those who are not.
It may also mean that party advisers earn considerably more than those they are advising.
Meanwhile, a Labour spokesman claimed that Mr Cameron's proposal was "a smokescreen to disguise the fact that he failed to sack Alan Duncan for his offensive remarks about MPs' salaries".
Mr Cameron has already said he wants to reduce the cost of politics and has set out plans to reduce the number of MPs by ten per cent.
The news comes just 24 hours after the shadow leader of the house, Alan Duncan, was revealed to have said that MP's were "forced to live on rations" in secret video footage recorded by political activists from Don't Panic.
Newsletter sign up