Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think MPs should not be getting any more pay rises

49 replies

P3N · 10/02/2023 11:36

Just read a news article saying on the 1st April 2023 MPs are to get a 2.9% pay increase.
I'm actually raging. With everything going on around them, this feels like another kick in the teeth. Can't pay nurses, teachers or train drivers but can pay themselves. 🤔

Oh and don't get me started on the medal of service idea they are thinking about for MPs because that's a joke too!

So AIBU to think they shouldn't be getting ANOTHER pay rise?

OP posts:
OP posts:
Bluebirdiee · 10/02/2023 11:40

YANBU. Completely tone deaf. All I here is "they didn't decide it themselves" like they have no control whatsoever on whether to take a payrise or not.

Lunde · 10/02/2023 11:48

MP's pay has risen by 30% between 2010 and 2022 from £65,738 in 2010 to £84,144 in 2022. They received increases during austerity and during periods where the rest of the public sector received zero or heavily restricted pay increases.

Their new pay rate will be £86,584 which represents an increase of over £20k or almost 32% since 2010

Soapnotshowergel · 10/02/2023 11:52

Massive pay rise overall since 2010 plus their expenses and discounted food and drinks in Parliament, it's obscene.

ilovesooty · 10/02/2023 11:59

I think the subsidies on food and particularly alcohol should go.

The expenses system needs an overhaul and should be much more rigorous. They shouldn't allow remuneration for side hustles either.

I'm not anything like as bothered by the base pay. The increase is in line with last year's public sector rise and if you don't pay a decent rate for what is basically a pretty insecure job no one will want to do it.

And seemingly many on this site would consider them not very well paid of course.

Tootsey11 · 10/02/2023 12:01

And yet like everything else this government does the little people just sit by and accept it.

EnglishRain · 10/02/2023 12:02

I work in the NHS and my pay rise was only 2.4%.

Idrinklotsofcoffee · 10/02/2023 12:05

& a very generous 10% pension contribution.

RenegadeKeeblerElf · 10/02/2023 12:06

EnglishRain · 10/02/2023 12:02

I work in the NHS and my pay rise was only 2.4%.

You must be quite senior then as everyone band 7 and below got a minimum of 4% (disclaimer, my knowledge is for England but I don't think it was less in Wales and Scotland).

KnickerlessParsons · 10/02/2023 12:08

Compared to a similar level of role in industry, their salaries aren't all that great - and they have to pay for their admin support out of their salary too.
The reported pay rise is lower than most people are currently getting or asking for.

BaroldFromEastenders · 10/02/2023 12:11

MPs don’t set their own pay rises. If you don’t understand that most basic fact what else don’t you understand?

Thesharkradar · 10/02/2023 12:13

I think they do it because they know it makes the public stressed and angry and it's harder for us to think straight and mount a defence against their machinations 🤬🤬🤬

Smarshian · 10/02/2023 12:15

I actually disagree. I absolutely believe that nurses and other public sector employees should be getting a decent pay rise, but £86ish k doesn’t seem like a huge amount to be paid for the level of responsibility. So many people in other industries (and within the civil service) are paid that amount and more for far less responsibility.

shropshire11 · 10/02/2023 12:27

Paying MPs less sounds satisfying. But it wouldn't solve anything.

To even become an MP, a person has to sideline family and career to campaign every weekend - for up to ten years. If they are then lucky enough to actually be selected for a seat, and then elected to Parliament, there's a good chance they will lose the seat after four years... and have to go back to the career that they sacked off in the first place.

The public esteem that's attached to the job is lower. It's pretty much a thankless task. The base pay of £80k sounds like a lot, but is not high compared with that of a high-performing professional person in their 40s. So for many of them, it's essentially a pay cut.

As a result of the above, the quality of people attracted to be MPs is now far lower than it was in the 80s and 90s. We get misfits who are desperate for attention (like Matt Hancock) rather than smart people who want to contribute to society.

We need to get the quality of personnel up - we need to make it easier for smart people to become an MP, and part of that is going to be about paying them properly.

Thesharkradar · 10/02/2023 12:32

I also agree with the position that this is not enough money for the amount of responsibility, further I think we are getting to a point where no one who is genuine would want to be a leader because of all the hate that you get from the public.
I think what we will get now is either useful idiots who are controlled buy powerful people in the Shadows working for their own benefit or out and out machiavellians exploiting the public for their own gain

SleeplessInEngland · 10/02/2023 12:33

I'd rather MPs got a massive pay rise and were banned from any second jobs/directorships/consultancy work during their tenure.

That would weed out quite a few of them.

GCAcademic · 10/02/2023 12:34

Smarshian · 10/02/2023 12:15

I actually disagree. I absolutely believe that nurses and other public sector employees should be getting a decent pay rise, but £86ish k doesn’t seem like a huge amount to be paid for the level of responsibility. So many people in other industries (and within the civil service) are paid that amount and more for far less responsibility.

The "responsibility" is hypothetical. The only consequences they have for non-performance of this notional responsibility come at the ballot box five years down the line or else - in more cases than there should be - criminal proceedings. Many MPs ignore letters from their constituents, refuse to hold surgeries and spend much of their time making money elsewhere. No one holds them to account. There is no performance review. Look at the behaviour of people like Jared O'Mara and Lloyd Russell Moyle who treat their constituents with contempt. In any other workplace, they would be disciplined, not left to carry on for years.

HappyKoala56 · 10/02/2023 12:37

SleeplessInEngland · 10/02/2023 12:33

I'd rather MPs got a massive pay rise and were banned from any second jobs/directorships/consultancy work during their tenure.

That would weed out quite a few of them.

This all day long. Being an MP should be a full time job and paid well for the level of responsibility. However if they've got time to do other jobs I don't think they can be doing their first one properly! Not to mention the risk of influence. I would make exceptions for second jobs in service to the public e.g. NHS

Bells3032 · 10/02/2023 12:41

Personally thjnk their pay rises should be the same as civil servants. So over thr last 5 years it should of been 0% for about 5 years, 1% for two years and 2% for the last two years. And that's it.

The pay rises they get are obscene and yes someone else sets them but then why is that someone else so tone deaf. Civil servants also don't get subsidised meals or other expenses.

For record 84k in the civil service would be director General level. So very senior. The majority of mps don't have much responsibility and those with extra responsibilities eg ministers get paid double that anyway

Thesharkradar · 10/02/2023 12:41

SleeplessInEngland · 10/02/2023 12:33

I'd rather MPs got a massive pay rise and were banned from any second jobs/directorships/consultancy work during their tenure.

That would weed out quite a few of them.

I vote for this!
And much more scrutiny on backhanders, benefits on the side etc, shine a big light on them, cut out the cronyism

GoChasingWaterfalls · 10/02/2023 12:42

I think all public sector workers need an inflation matching payrise.

I also think the current crop of Tory MPs are corrupt, incompetent, and in some cases, downright idiotic. I'm particularly looking forward to discovering what Labour are going to reveal on Monday regarding the "GPC files."

That being said, I don't think MPs actually get paid enough. They are making important decisions about our country, often work late into the night at parliament, and have large caseloads.

DH is a non executive director of an SME in the north west. His salary is £80k. It means that we're comfortable, we don't struggle financially, but we're certainly not rolling in it.

If we want to attract the brightest and best to become MPs (which we currently lack if the current cohort are anything to go by) then we need to offer a renumeration package that reflects that. If my DH can earn a similar salary managing just one small company, how we can expect people to run an entire constituency on the same salary?

InMySpareTime · 10/02/2023 12:44

If MPs pay was a fixed multiple of the UK median wage they'd have an incentive to improve the outlook for everyone.

ilovesooty · 10/02/2023 13:05

SleeplessInEngland · 10/02/2023 12:33

I'd rather MPs got a massive pay rise and were banned from any second jobs/directorships/consultancy work during their tenure.

That would weed out quite a few of them.

So would I.

Lunde · 10/02/2023 13:09

Smarshian · 10/02/2023 12:15

I actually disagree. I absolutely believe that nurses and other public sector employees should be getting a decent pay rise, but £86ish k doesn’t seem like a huge amount to be paid for the level of responsibility. So many people in other industries (and within the civil service) are paid that amount and more for far less responsibility.

Backbenchers don't have huge responsibility - anyone in a Ministerial grade receives extra. The base pay does not include the expenses MPs can claim for office costs, staff, additional housing costs in London and travel etc nor the benefits of subsidised food and booze in the Houses of Parliament.

Back in the 1980s a major review led to the pay of backbench MPs being tied to the salary scale for grade 6 civil servants as they were deemed to have similar levels of responsibility. However this was discontinued and since then MP pay has vastly outstripped the equivalent Civil Service py.
In 2022
Grade 6 Civil Servant (including London weighting) - £65,000 - 72,688
MP basic salary not including expenses - £84,144

pompomdaisy · 10/02/2023 13:20

They disgust me. Like others say. Tone deaf.