MPs’ pay rise leaves NHS workers with a bitter taste

MPs are to receive a 2.7% pay rise from April, taking their salary to £79,468.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) has announced MPs will receive a 2.7% pay rise from Apil – meaning the basic salary paid to MPs will have risen by £13,730 since April 2010.

This year’s rise follows a 1.8% rise last year, 1.4% in 2017, 1.3% in 2016 and a large hike, from £67,000 to £74,000, in 2015.

Healthcare unions have publicly criticised the announcement after NHS workers are subjected year-on-year real-terms pay cuts while MPs’ pay has risen by more than 20 per cent in a decade.

A Downing Street spokeswoman said: “The decision taken today is independent of government and Parliament. What government sets are ministerial salaries and they have been frozen since 2010.”

‘A bitter taste’.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chair, said: “To hear that MPs’ pay has gone up yet again will leave a bitter taste in the mouth of public sector workers – including our heroic NHS staff – who continue to be hit with derisory, below inflation pay rises.”

“Since 2010, MPs’ pay has risen by more than 20 per cent, yet after a decade of austerity and public-sector pay freezes doctors have seen theirs fall by as much as 30 per cent in real terms.”

“Politicians say they value the NHS, but it really is time to put their money with their mouth is. This is the pay rise that NHS staff deserve.”

Christina McAnea, Unison’s Assistant General Secretary, said: “Politicians should now turn their attention to making sure public service workers on outsourced contracts get above-inflation pay rises, too. Many of them missed out on NHS and council pay rises last year but do the same jobs as colleagues. People delivering essential public services shouldn’t be forced to survive on poverty wages.”