MPs should not receive an inflation-busting £3,300 pay rise next April, but let the money go to key workers instead, Labour leader Keir Starmer has said.
The independent body which sets MPs’ pay wants to carry on linking it to wage growth in the public sector, which was 4.1% in October, well above the inflation rate of 0.2%.
It would mean MPs’ pay would rise from £81,932 to more than £85,000, at a time when millions of workers are feeling financial pain as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Starmer said: “This year of all years we shouldn’t have it.
"That money, if it’s available, should be spent on key workers – those who have been on the front line through this pandemic.”
Speaking to LBC Radio, Mr Starmer called for a cross-party discussion about what to do.
He said: “I suspect there are lots of MPs that feel it just isn’t right.”
He said the decision had been “parcelled out to an independent body so MPs don’t decide for themselves what they get paid, but that’s mitigation, it’s not an excuse”.
Richard Lloyd, interim chairman of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, which set MPs’ salaries, said the body had a statutory duty to review MPs’ pay in the first year of each parliament.
Major reviews were carried out in 2012, 2013 and 2015, with technical adjustments in 2018.
He said: “Given the huge economic uncertainties arising from the pandemic, we do not think it is right to depart from this approach now.
