MPs to decide whether to defy PM over pay
- 00:01:18
- ITN
MPs to decide whether to defy PM over pay
MPs will decide later whether to defy Prime Minister Gordon Brown and award themselves an inflation-busting 4.4 per cent pay rise.Ministerial salary increases have already been scrapped in a bid to set a pay restraint example amid tight deals for public sector workers.Now the Commons must choose whether to ignore an independent review that said they deserved a big pay hike and accept the Government's deal instead, worth around 2.2 per cent.MPs will also vote on a shake-up of their controversial allowances, for millions more pounds to be spent on their offices and for their home addresses to be kept secret.Sir John Baker's review of Westminster pay had recommended that MPs receive three years of £650 "catch-up" payments and a pay rise in line with recent average public sector earnings.But the Government wants pay linked to the mid-point of a basket of public sector settlements - meaning a likely rise of 2 per cent in 2008/09.Commons leader Harriet Harman will urge MPs to show restraint amid opposition warnings of a looming "summer of discontent", with massive public sector pay strikes in the pipeline.The halt to ministerial pay will not prevent them receiving the same rise as other MPs in their £61,181 salary for being a constituency representative.Debate on the pay rise will be followed by another on plans to shake-up the Westminster expenses system drawn up in the wake of the Derek Conway scandal and other controversies.MPs will be stopped from using public money to do up and furnish second homes but the total they will be able to claim for food and running those homes will drop just £206 a year to £23,800.
ITN | July 3, 2008
