DEBATE: MPs are about to get a pay rise – but do they deserve it?

MPs are about to get a pay rise – but do they deserve it?

John Oxley, a Conservative commentator, says YES.

MPs will soon earn £79,468. It’s far more than most people, but still not enough to lure the most talented individuals into our legislature.

An ambitious and highly capable graduate in the City or law will have exceeded that figure by their thirties. Even those more motivated by the public good can earn higher salaries as a headteacher, civil servant, or at a major charity.

Equally, those are careers which you can’t lose at an hour’s notice on polling day. You don’t see your professional and personal failings in the papers, endure daily torrents of online abuse, or have to decry publicly the raise that an independent body has given you.

Parliament offers ambitious people poor conditions and a pay cut. This means that the most talented members have made fortunes before standing (Sajid Javid), inherited wealth (David Cameron), or rely on a high-earning spouse (Ed Milliband).

To encourage a broader mix of talent, it is important to pay MPs more competitively.

Mo Lovatt, lecturer in Cultural and Creative Industries and co-chair of The Great Debate, says NO.

The news that the body that sets MPs’ pay has awarded them an above inflation raise of 2.7 per cent has not gone down well, and rightly so. This increase far outstrips the 1.8 per cent inflation rate. It is nearly double the 1.5 per cent being given to parliamentary staff, and almost three times the one per cent offered to civil servants.

It comes at a time when trust in politicians is at all-time low, partly due to their unconscionable failure to reach agreement over Brexit, and partly due to their own unparliamentary conduct.

Sackings, resignations, and even criminal convictions no longer last the 24-hour news cycle. Long gone is Lloyd George’s 1911 justification for an allowance to attract those “who would render incalculable service to the state and whom it is an incalculable loss to the state not to have”.

What is becoming an “incalculable loss” is the national shortage of nurses, police officers, teachers, and other public sector workers. How about we place a pay cap on MPs’ pay, and offer higher salaries to attract the best people into these much-needed occupations instead?