David Cameron is to fight a proposed 11 per cent pay rise for MPs until at least a year after the 2015 general election as the squeeze on public sector pay continues.
His stance puts him on a collision course with the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority — which has recommended the rise by spring 2015 — and many of his own MPs.
Although Downing Street today refused to rule out Mr Cameron accepting the increase in his MPs’ salary by £7,600 to £74,000, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said that he “doesn’t think that MPs’ pay should go up while public sector pay is being restrained”, or that the cost of politics should rise.
The one per cent cap on public sector pay is set to continue until 2015/16, so the earliest Mr Cameron could support a rise in MPs’ salary is 2016/17.
However, IPSA is set to defend its proposed increase by insisting that its reforms will not leave the taxpayer paying a penny more.
Labour leader Ed Miliband is urging IPSA to reconsider. “We hope a bit of common sense breaks out,” said a senior Labour source. “It’s really up to IPSA to come up with a sensible proposal.”
Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said the public would find it “utterly incomprehensible” if IPSA failed to show restraint.
No 10 stressed that the proposed rise would be reviewed after the election. The current plan is to backdate the rise to May 8, 2015, the first day after the next general election.
Ministers and MPs are split over the rise that is due to be confirmed on Thursday, which is less than the £95,000 salary a number of backbenchers were demanding.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has said he would not accept a rise while soldiers’ pay was held back.
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But former Commons Speaker Baroness Boothroyd told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour: “I know that is distasteful to a lot of people, but at the same time they have cut down the expenses and various other things.
“The taxpaying public aren’t going to like it, but I think they’re just going to have to take it on the chin.”
IPSA proposes a small rise next year, followed by a nine per cent hike in 2015. It will argue that the rise will be completely offset by cuts to pensions, limiting pay-offs to MPs whose lose their seats, and a crackdown on claims for dinner, taxis and tea and biscuits.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, said: “That an 11 per cent pay rise is even being proposed shows a political class wildly out of touch.”
