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MPs, disgraced by the expenses scandal are to get a near £1,000 pay rise. Unions were furious at the plans, which will put politicians salaries at £65,737 from April 1st. There is added anger at the move as people continue to struggle with the fallout from a severe recession suffering with pay freezes, cuts and joblessness - cuts in the civil service has prompted the threat of a national strike. The Senior Salaries Review Body came to the 1.5% rise figure after calculating the median increases given to 15 other groups of public sector workers. Doctors and dentists, top NHS managers, the judiciary and the Senior Civil Service were all handed increases of 1.5 per cent last year.
"Ministers will not take money"
Downing Street last night said ministers would not take the extra money and had also agreed to freeze their own pay. A spokeswoman said: "The Prime Minister is clear that we need to strengthen public confidence in the political system and reduce the cost of politics. That is why paid government ministers will not be accepting the pay rise in MP salaries generated by the annual formula and based on the average pay award across the public sector in the previous year. They will also not be accepting a rise in ministerial salaries this year." Chancellor Alistair Darling announced a one-year pay freeze for the most senior civil servants, NHS managers, GPs and chief executives of quangos last autumn. The Tories say will impose a one-year pay freeze for all public servants earning more than £18,000 if they come to power. "Does not seem right" Dave Prentis, general secretary of public sector Unison, told the Guardian: "It does not seem right that MPs can get a 1.5 per cent pay increase, worth £1,000 a year on basic pay, when low-paid workers such as teaching assistants, school dinner ladies, social care workers, road sweepers will get nothing, because their pay is being frozen. They might want to contemplate the speeches and seminars calling for lengthy pay restraint in the public sector."
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