MPs will receive a pay rise of 3.1% to £82k

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) have announced that MPs will receive a pay rise of 3.1% next month

MPs will receive a pay rise which will raise basic pay for MPs’ from £79,468 to £81,932, this increase will be put into effect from the 1st of April.

It comes after the IPSA’s decided in 2018 to make the adjustment to the pay of MPs to match the same rate as the earnings in the public sector; those earnings are published by the Office of National Statistics.

Richard Lloyd, the IPSA interim chair has said: “Our review of MPs’ staffing budgets in 2019 found demands on MPs’ offices were high, with staff doing difficult and stressful casework with constituents on a very wide range of problems.”

“There was often high staff turnover, with salary levels below comparable roles elsewhere, based on independent benchmarked evidence.”

He went on to say that MPs were spending “relatively little time or money” on wellbeing, development and staff training.

“As a result, we have provided additional funding in MPs’ 2020-21 staffing budgets for staff training and welfare, security, and changes to the salary bands and job descriptions for MPs’ staff to bring them into line with the jobs they actually do,” he said.

This announcement is significant, as it is the first time MPs’ salaries have gone above £80,000. This is a dramatic increase from the £65,738 salary in April 2010.

MPs who have other duties usually receive an additional salary on top of their base salary, such as ministers, with chairs of select committees now to be paid an extra £16,422, up from £15,928 in April 2019.

According to Cabinet Office figures, the Prime Minister was entitled to a second salary of £79,286 in 2019, and other senior ministers including the Chancellor and Secretaries of State were entitled to up to £71,090.

The salaries that were actually claimed by members of parliament were approximately £4,000 less than they were fully entitled to.