UK MPs to get 10% pay rise to £74,000 while public workers survive on 1%

DESPITE public workers’ pay rises being capped at one per cent, UK MPs have just been awarded a 10 per cent backdated pay rise, bringing them to £74,000. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) made the announcement, disregarding concerns raised by public sector trade unions and also various ministers and MPs.
The news comes after David Cameron last month called such proposals “unacceptable.” Nevertheless, Downing Street later admitted that Prime Minister Cameron would accept his pay rise personally and would not actually take steps to prevent the pay hike from becoming a reality.
As well as backdating the rise to May 8, MPs who were elected before 2015 will also enjoy an increase in pensions since they are linked to their salaries.
Chairman of IPSA, Sir Ian Kennedy, claims that the rise was because MPs salaries in the past had been supplemented by “an opaque and discredited system of allowances.”
MPs were divided on that matter with opponents arguing that to award such a rise at a time when so many of their constituents faced economic hardships was unthinkable.
Three Labour MPs, all candidates for the party’s leadership – Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall – have said they will not accept the money. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and Justice Secretary Michael Gove also said previously they would not do so either.