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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think the headline about young MP giving away half her wage is misleading?

198 replies

SarahH12 · 15/12/2019 02:07

A friend shared an article with the headline "Britain's youngest MP vows to only take home £35k of her £79k salary" with lots of comments that it's great she is giving away half her salary.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/britains-youngest-mp-vows-only-21094591?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mirror_main

By the time you take into account tax, NI, pension, possibly student loan etc her take home would be in the region of 40-45k. So whilst it's great she's planning on donating 5-10k and it's a lot more than a lot of people, she is nowhere near giving away "half" her salary. Also she mentions she wants to take home a "working" salary. The average nurse takes home way less than 35k!! I work for the NHS and I don't know a single one of my colleagues who takes home that much.

OP posts:
Fraggling · 15/12/2019 16:24

Has she got kids?

I didn't see it mentioned in the article.

Fraggling · 15/12/2019 16:26

I mean as pp mentions she'll be needing 'quality childcare' and so on.

Meaning she's a single parent without anyone around to help with the kids / and the housework kids generate etc.

I must admit as it wasn't mentioned I assumed she didn't. Missed something?

Fraggling · 15/12/2019 16:27

'For a full time single parent working in a demanding job?'

This bit

Alsohuman · 15/12/2019 16:27

I don’t think she’s got any kids.

RufusthebewiIderedreindeer · 15/12/2019 16:39

The headline is misleading but that will be the newspapers fault

She is being very generous

Fraggling · 15/12/2019 16:43

That makes those posts super interesting in their assumptions.

When I was 23 and living alone I had very little 'cleaning and home maintenance' to do as it was only me and I was at work all the time.

The assumption she is a single parent is really interesting.

Fraggling · 15/12/2019 16:46

Repeated myself a bit but never mind!

I'm sure pension arrangements for mps are pretty well sorted. She won't need 'high quality childcare' and will get expenses for her living arrangements.

That leaves paying off student loans, holiday and savings. Which I'm sure she will be able to manage on a take home of £35k Grin

Weird posters on this thread.

SympatheticSwan · 15/12/2019 16:46

Apologies, I picked the single working mother thing from a post earlier on the thread but now re-reading this I realise it was probably said about her own mother rather than her.
My general point stands. I do not say that I deem her incompetent on the basis of being generous - but rather that before trusting someone with public finances, I'd take a hard look on how they make decisions with respect to their own money. This is exactly why there's usually a bar for everyone with a history of personal bankruptcy working in financial services (yes, even if they were bankrupt through generourisity). And I would put more trust into someone who, say, pays off their student debt early rather than someone who makes a grand gesture of donating it all to charity. I am too boring, I know.

FlamingoAndJohn · 15/12/2019 16:46

@SympatheticSwan

For a full time single parent working in a demanding job? I'd guess starting from around £300 / month where I am. Yes, I'd say the same for a man.

Where does it say that she is a single parent.
I can’t find anything about her relationship status or if she has children.

FlamingoAndJohn · 15/12/2019 16:47

Sorry, cross post.

FlamingoAndJohn · 15/12/2019 16:50

Anyway. My cleaner costs about £50 a month. If she feels the need to have someone clean for her then she should be able to afford that. She might well live in a new house or flat that doesn’t need maintenance. More likely, given her age, she is in a rental so maintenance isn’t her problem.

She’s a big grown up who doesn’t need petty people telling her she doesn’t know how to mange her money.

SympatheticSwan · 15/12/2019 16:54

@FlamingoAndJohn
I agree that there's no ones decision but hers how she spends her money, as for everyone else really. I know a couple of people who donate more to the charity than her - either in time or money - but, weirdly, none of them feel they have to make a public statement about it.

FlamingoAndJohn · 15/12/2019 16:57

I know a couple of people who donate more to the charity than her - either in time or money - but, weirdly, none of them feel they have to make a public statement about it

Well they’ve told you....
They most likely haven’t made a public statement about it because they aren’t public figures like an MP.

TheNavigator · 15/12/2019 16:58

Wow, I hate the lazy 'typical Tory' tropes but... OMG, the OP is epitomising everything offensive about the Tory party - obviously they are called the nasty party for a reason.

OP you have singled out a young, successful BAME woman for criticism for the most pathetic and spurious of reasons. Do you really hate other people that much? What is wrong with you, that have to put down and belittle another's success? What do you get out of it?

Like The Twits it will show on your face one day.

ReceptacleForTheRespectable · 15/12/2019 17:04

Wow, OP. You sound like a real peach. Hmm

How about you do something positive yourself rather than just throwing stones from the sidelines?

SympatheticSwan · 15/12/2019 17:17

Well they’ve told you....
They actually didn't, I learned this through volunteering in a financial position for a small local charity, and having to pick up a bit of the individual donor relationship management. The only donor who was open about his (substantial) donations was, very strangely, a man who had the child support agency on his trail for a similarly substantial child maintenance debt. Grin
I think if a person makes a public statement about something, they should be ready to receive a public opinion back, which might be not 100% positive. In the same way as I want the doctor operating on my child's heart (not a hypothetical situation for many, including me) to have excellent household help, reliable childcare, a fantastic holiday in a country far far away where they can forget about their daily grind, I want my MP to have the same niceties of life. Because the price of stress, of tiredness, of a single mistake in their occupations is, frankly, much higher than that of many other jobs.

Alsohuman · 15/12/2019 17:18

but, weirdly, none of them feel they have to make a public statement about it

Weirdly, they’re probably not MPs. She’s making a point.

SympatheticSwan · 15/12/2019 17:22

Weirdly, they’re probably not MPs. She’s making a point.
Then it's no wonder that there are people who disagree with that point? It cannot be both ways - personal AND impersonal at the same time. Then it is weird to label all criticism as personal hate, if we are discussing an abstract political point here.

Fraggling · 15/12/2019 17:27

Sympathetic swan I don't think you're posts have any credibility at all tbh after all the bollocks earlier.

Saying you'd rather she spend her money on a cleaner and home maintenance as otherwise she'll be spending too much time doing that to focus on her job.

Then erroneously claiming she was a single mother and should be spending the money on decent childcare.

I mean its all drivel.

23yo who work full time and don't have kids really don't need to do much cleaning. Honestly. Shocking I know but true.

SympatheticSwan · 15/12/2019 17:45

@Fraggling
I wrote about domestic chores etc. still under the assumption that she was a single mother. I am one myself and I know how much it takes from the time that could be spent gainfully working. I think I apologised above for getting it wrong.
Many 23 years old start saving for a house deposit, contribute to pension, support their family. I read now a couple of her interviews to educate myself on the matter - she says her mother is living on the breadline. I am culturally not British, and family as such is probably unusually important for me, but outside of the political world someone who chooses extreme charitable giving over supporting their impoverished mother would probably raise a couple of eyebrows.

fishonabicycle · 15/12/2019 17:48

Oh fuck off OP you miserable piece of work. She's trying to do something decent and all you can do is moan about it.

Fraggling · 15/12/2019 17:49

Mp pension scheme is fairly generous I believe.
Imagine the contributions will be out of gross salary as per most jobs.
Not sure why you think her pension is at risk either.

Oh lol read the rest of your post.
So now it's not that she will neglect her constituents by having to spend all her time cleaning.
But that she is happily letting her mother starve to death while she makes a point.

Listen to yourself, fgs.

fishonabicycle · 15/12/2019 17:51

And it's important because it's highlighting the fact that many people don't earn enough, despite working hard.

greenlavender · 15/12/2019 17:52

@SarahH12 - what a nasty post. How much of your salary do you give away?

Fraggling · 15/12/2019 17:52

Are you imagining she has opted out of her mp pension scheme for some reason?

Your posts make no sense tbh.
You're guessing, making stuff up.

For all we know she lives with her mum and contributes to the household. Which would still be cheaper than living alone.
I mean if we're just making random guesses here as to her circs.

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