I have received quite a correspondence condemning the 2.7 % pay rise for MPs.
My reply is simple: “Not me Guv”; For over a decade MP’s pay has been set by an independent body using a formula linking it to the level of pay in the public sector.
Is the independent body making a reasonable fist of it, or is it being too generous?
Well, if you average out the pay increases they have awarded us over the last decade it works out at 2.9% per year, which may be generous but not excessive. The important thing is that it is significantly below the rate of inflation. Hopefully, this will give a lead in pay negotiations: it is essential not to build inflationary expectations if we are to bring inflation under control.
As an aside, given the column inches given to the MP pay award in the newspapers, when David Cameron’s Coalition Government came to power in 2010, with very stretched public finances, it immediately cut all ministerial pay by 5% and then froze it for 5 years. This received no press coverage at all -funny that.