MPs receive £1K pay rise

Friday, 5 March 2010 9:18 AM

By politics.co.uk staff

MPs will receive a pay increase of £1,000, taking their basic salary up to £65,737 a year.

The decision was made by the Senior Salaries Review Body without any input from MPs, and will go through automatically.

It calculated the amount by looking at changes to pay in other areas of the public sector, such as doctors, judges and policemen.

But Unison, the public sector union, opposed the move.

"It does not seem right that MPs can get a 1.5% pay increase, worth £1,000 a year on basic pay, when low paid workers such as teaching assistants, school dinner ladies, social care workers, road sweepers will get nothing, because their pay is being frozen," said David Prentis, general secretary.

"They might also want to contemplate the speeches and seminars calling for lengthy pay restraint in the public sector and the damage they cause to morale and public confidence."

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