The Welsh people will be delighted to learn their Senedd Parliamentarians are set to receive an inflation-busting pay rise next year of 2.4%, despite many public sector workers – and their counterparts in the UK’s real parliament – set to face a freeze. Like IPSA, AMs’ pay is set by the “independent” remuneration board, who have recommended the rise despite the parliament in SW1 freezing pay. Did the Assembly really think no one would notice?
The 2.4% pay rise represents a £1,624 rise for the basic salary of members, bringing their wage to an incredible £69.272. Despite the pocket-lining set to go down like a lead balloon, the chair of the remuneration board proudly presented the proposals, claiming that because Assembly Members’ pay was frozen at the start of the year, the May 2021 pay rise will only be £1,624 as opposed to £4,672. Wales’s Covid fight has been, by many measures, the worst in the world; the idea a £5,000 pay rise was ever on the table as opposed to at least a 50% pay cut, is mind-boggling…
IPSA has finally announced they won’t be giving MPs a pay rise next year as originally planned, writing to MPs to inform them:
“The unprecedented impact of the Covid pandemic has had an unexpected, but different, effect on public and private sector earnings. It is clear that applying the forthcoming official statistic for public sector earnings growth would result in a salary increase for MPs that would be inconsistent with the wider economic data and would not reflect the reality that many constituents are facing this year.
The IPSA Board has therefore decided that the salary for Members of Parliament will remain unchanged for the financial year 2021-22.”
Responding to IPSA’s announcement of a pay freeze for MPs, the TaxPayers’ Alliance’s John O’Connell says:
“This victory for common sense is an early Christmas present for taxpayers. With the public finances in such a dire state, many public sector salaries have rightly been capped – so it’s only fair that politicians’ pay rises are also postponed. But if IPSA really wants parliament to deliver for the British public, MPs’ pay should be linked to the country’s economic performance.”
Co-conspirators who took the time to respond to IPSA’s public consultation can be well pleased.
Guido exclusively brings you the IPSA letter in full:
As Guido discussed in last week’s podcast, the solution to the ongoing MP pay row doesn’t require parliamentarians once again controlling their own pay policy; just demanding a new mechanism for formally rejecting proposed pay rises from IPSA. While this solution isn’t yet on the cards, Guido has now discovered this exact proposal is being driven forward by IPSA in a new approach to MP’s staff pay. Buried in an ongoing consultation document they propose:
“MPs would have the ability to opt out of the automatic arrangements, for example, where a pay increase may not be appropriate in a particular case.”
IPSA acknowledges “This would allow for the appropriate level of flexibility in these circumstances”. If the body can fathom MPs being able to put the brakes on their staffs’ automatic pay rises, there is no reason IPSA can’t include such a proposed mechanism in their current MP pay consultation. At this rate MPs stand to lose their staffs’ support, as well as that of the public…
Alongside submitting personal pledges to Guido, 52 Tory MPs – spearheaded by much of the 2019 intake – have written to the Interim chair of IPSA this afternoon calling on MPs’ pay to be frozen.
They correctly assert, “when so many of our constituents are facing uncertainty, it is only right that we help shoulder the burden. As such, we sincerely hope that you will take current circumstances into account and scrap the proposed pay rise for Members of Parliament.” It’s all very well, however MPs should not have to beg an unelected bureaucrat to do the right thing – there should be legislation brought forward by the government that puts into law the ability of MPs to reject rises…
In one of the most sensible reforms of the whole Coronavirus epidemic, members of the House of Lords will no longer be able to claim the full £326 a day allowance, and will receive nothing for simply turning up in Parliament. Bad news for money grabbing Baroness Uddin…
Peers will now only be able to claim £162 a day, and only on the proviso that they actually contribute in a debate or select committee. The rate, lower because peers will not need to pay for travel or accommodation to work, is designed to encourage members to stay at home. Guido hopes this radical new idea of paying Peers for the work they actually do rather than just for clocking in sticks after the crisis is over…
The proposals, drawn up by a cross-party commission are expected to be approved on Wednesday. Lords sources tell Guido that the Tory-led fiscal hawks on the commission have won, beating back Labour and Lib Dem proposals for more money. The latter party in particular wanted 80% of the total to be given to their noble colleagues…
Lords sources tell Guido they have spotted one Baroness Uddin repeatedly clocking in to Parliament this week, despite not participating in any debates. Readers may remember Uddin as the expenses fiddler who was eventually ordered to repay £125,349 to the taxpayer and received an 18 month suspension from the Lords over the affair. Even the Labour Party handed her an indefinite suspension when the allegations surfaced, so she now sits as an independent…
Guido wonders why Uddin, who sits on no committees, has not spoken in any debates, is no longer a member of any political party, could have joined sessions remotely if she wanted to, and has a history of dodgy expenses claims, has been seen popping in and out of Parliament during the pandemic. On an unrelated note, on Monday a Lords commission will decide whether Peers should receive their £323 a day for clocking in during the pandemic…
