MPs' pay set to rise to almost Â£78,000 a year after latest wage bump

Members of Parliament in the UK are set for a pay rise from April 1 '“ andÂ one Lancashire MP has said it is 'absolutely right' that parliamentarians have no say on how much they are paid.

MPs will be given a 1.8 per cent pay rise, taking their basic pay to £77,379, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) said.

The additional salary paid to House of Commons select committee chairs will also rise by 1.8 per cent to £15,509.

Nigel Evans, MP for Ribble Valley, said: “MPs’ pay is independently calculated and it is absolutely right that MPs have no say in the matter.”

Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans has backed the decision for any pay rise to be done independently from MPs themselves.

IPSA said the moves were in line with a commitment made in July 2015 to adjust MPs’ pay at the same rate as changes in public sector earnings published by the Office for National Statistics.

But the increase is well above the one per cent annual cap imposed on most public sector workers since 2010, although it lags behind inflation of 3 per cent.

MPs enjoyed a 1.4 per cent rise in their basic salary in 2017 to the current £76,011 and a 1.3 per cent rise in 2016.

From April, their salary will have risen by a total of 17.7 per cent since the introduction of the Government’s austerity programme, including public sector pay freezes and caps, in 2010.

The Post contacted the offices of MPs Sir Mark Hendrick, Seema Kennedy, and Sir Lindsay Hoyle for further comments but none were received.