In an unprecedented move last week, MP’s voted unanimously for a 5% cut in salary and a cap on other benefits to be implemented with immediate effect. All MP’s including the Prime Minister and cabinet will now travel second class or economy and ‘fact finding’ trips abroad will be limited to places where ‘you wouldn’t want to go on holiday’. The practice of employing family members to run constituency offices is also to cease as is the accommodation allowance for MP’s who are too lazy to travel home.
Elizabeth Canning, MP for Kensington South, received a spontaneous round of applause when she said that her children would no longer be able to rely on a paid internship in her office when they graduated and that they would 'have to find a proper job like everyone else'.
During the debate a number of MP’s also expressed concern that advisory and non -executive roles they had taken on to boost their income was distracting them from effectively representing their constituencies and that in future they would concentrate on delivering what they said they would do for the people who had taken the trouble to vote for them.
A spokesman said “We’re fed up with being pressured to take large pay rises. Others working in the public sector have seen their pay decrease in real terms and it’s only right that MP’s should feel the pinch too. We need to set an example, we can’t bang on about the need for others to tighten their belts if we aren’t prepared to do the same”