From 1 April, MPs’ pay will rise to just shy of £100,000. The new £98,599 a year basic salary is not an April Fool’s joke and definitely not very funny for the millions of workers, including many civil service and public sector employees, who won’t see a similar 5% rise or any real-terms rise at all. Also note the word basic, some MPs receive more, as well as all getting a pad in central London.
The latest NHS pay deal from April onwards in England is a below-inflation 3.3%, as one worker says: “Yet again, they’re expected [us] to keep delivering more while effectively being given less, as pay slides behind living costs.”
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) sets MPs’ pay and says it was also aiming to move towards a salary of around £110,000 by the end of this parliament, due in 2029.
Ipsa claims that “higher levels of complex casework, and abuse and intimidation” is the reason for the raise, but what about the public sector workers who are constantly working more following funding and staff level cuts and sometimes facing abuse for carrying out draconian government policies, such as in job centres?
We call for MPs to only be paid a worker’s wage, and not to benefit from any material privileges, like Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition chair and Socialist Party member Dave Nellist and other Militant-supporting Labour MPs did.
