To think MPs are underpaid

If they had to sign in and out and appear in parliament sometimes and sometimes take notice of what the general public actually wants maybe they would earn 94 thousand plus the freebies and that be seen as reasonable If they give themselves such a high salary it's reasonable to expect them to do more surely

Ok. Up it to 6 it 7 times average salary. If they want more money then they'll need to improve the average UK salary. Essentially making their pay linked to how well they do their jobs

Always plenty of people queuing up to get elected, so no, if anything they should be paid less with it being a buyers market...or do those rules only apply to the small people?

Presumably we don't care about quality carers, shop staff, cleaners, bus drivers, childcare staff etc because we pay them very little, or perhaps their work isn't important.

Why don't you just tell me?

What do you think MPs net a month? In salary?

Further up thread there was a list of what could be claimed and it was quite a nice list if you had access to it.

Definitely not daily mail vibes from me .
Dyed in the wool Labour voter for 40 years.

there is a huge amount of disinformation about what MPs (and any other public figures like civil servants etc) ‘cream off’ the state. What do you think MPs (not ministers, just regular MPs) are netting every month in take home from being an MP?

I’m just hearing my aunty Maureen and her Daily Mail vibes.

They are not underpaid at all and they get a their expenses paid as well.

On the security issue, in the 2015 parliament one MP was murdered (Jo Cox, by a white supremacist). David Amess more recently.

could be statistical anomalies but on the other
had, there are only 650 of them in situ at any one time.

let’s not forget the non fatal
attempts over time, too.

Cheers nippy person.

Says someone who knows nothing about how parliament works.

genuinely - would you do that job?

I wouldn’t, and couldn’t, because I’m a single parent with grandparent and sick relative caring responsibilities as well as kids.

Your system is great if you want a chamber made up of 90% privileged, male representatives.

research *support (fat fingers, sorry)

The additions are for things associated with their job: secretarial and research sjlllry, stationery, utilities, rent (for constituency offices), second homes necessary for the discharge of their jobs. It’s not free money for nothing.

They not only get their salary but expenses as well, and those mount up.

If they had some sort of vision for the country and could implement it as opposed to flailing around doing anything they can to get high approval ratings and votes I might agree with you.

Anyway 30p Lee only needs about £1.20 a day to eat so I don't see increasing his salary would be necessary.

Just because they're not in the chamber doesn't mean they're not working. Sir Trevor McDonald didn't just get paid for 30 mins reading the news each night. There's a huge amount of unseen work carried out too.

Fix their income to 3 times the average salary, more for ministers. Build a hotel that they can stay in while in London so no second home allowances. No more employing family members.

No outside work whatsoever. They should either be in parliament or working for their constituency.

In addition, all MPs should have a probationary period during which time they have to pass a security clearance check. I find it shocking that when I worked for the Bank of England everyone, no matter what their role, had to be SC cleared, but there are no checks at all on incoming MPs who have unbelievably privileged access to information.

Personally I do think MPs are underpaid and should maybe be on something like 250k.
However all MPs should be banned from having second jobs, property portfolios and cannot receive income from lobbiests. In addition second home allowances should be scrapped and instead purpose built apartments should be made available to MPs near Westminster as too many MPs exploit the second home allowance for profit.
In addition ministers should be banned from working in any industry that was in their portfolio for 5 years after they lose that post or stop being MPs as there is a direct conflict of interest there.

I think if you include all their expenses, it's not too bad. And I get they could be out of a job after 5 years due to not being re elected, but no job is for life anymore. I also agree that second jobs should not be allowed. They are being paid for doing a full time job. There shouldn't be time for doing another on the side, unless it's keeping your hand in your original profession ( eg doctor). It's a full on job and there should be proper renumeration. But with that should come clearer rules about what is and what isn't acceptable. Once elected, an MP should be representing all of their constituents, not just those that voted for them. I wonder if the people of Clacton are getting good value for money.

They are absolutely underpaid.

Yes he did Sugarflub
google jane street salaries

I’ve thought this for a long time. Not just from the point of view of not being enough to attract he best people, but also that we get a lot of people who come from family money and don’t actually need to live off the salary, but have a vested interest in controlling politics to keep the rich rich.

Exactly it's a job where you barely touch your wage as everything else is expensed.