And you think you put your foot in your mouth in public...

[d000hg]

I would like to see MPs paid much more - for perspective an MP's salary is about that of a middling Java developer at an investment bank.

Not sure that's true but even so, only in London. It's a good salary outside the SE just not an amazing one - though it depends where you've come from. If you are a business manager it's no big deal, if you're a working bloke from t'pit it might be 3-4X your previous salary. I think both can make good MPs.

[TheDude]

I would like to see MPs paid much more - for perspective an MP's salary is about that of a middling Java developer at an investment bank.

BUT - they should be forbidden for holding any other position whilst in parliament and banned from holding any influence peddling role for several years after leaving the position.

That would soon weed out the chancers who go into the politics for their own benefit.

[d000hg]

My personal issue isn't the amount an MP gets paid, it's the quality of MP we get for that money. You only have to think of Grayling to know that minimum wage would be too much for him!

I'd prefer less MPs but higher calibre and pay accordingly. Maybe MPs should be suitably 'qualified' to be given the job .... just like any other profession is.

We do have quite a selective process to elect them. Maybe we'd get better candidates if the pay was better, after all why become an MP if you've got the skills to pull down 300k and the rest?

[vetran]

One suggested he should retrain as a lorry driver!

[Whorty]

Since there's obviously a shortage of good quality MPs, perhaps we should be providing Visa's for foreigners to fill these low paid jobs.

Think we could get Trump on board?

[Paralytic]

I'd prefer less MPs but higher calibre and pay accordingly. Maybe MPs should be suitably 'qualified' to be given the job .... just like any other profession is.

Since there's obviously a shortage of good quality MPs, perhaps we should be providing Visas for foreigners to fill these low paid jobs.

[OwlHoot]

...but not as much as Peter Bottomley. He's now got a gofundme.

https://metro.co.uk/2021/10/07/gofun...lary-15379141/

The British public has taken pity on a hard-done-by MP and set up fundraising pages after he revealed the struggles of getting by on his generous annual salary. ..

It would be the funniest thing ever if some billionaire donated 10 million to this gofundme account for a laugh, so MPs ended up with a massive windfall!

[Whorty]

Personally I have no problem them being paid more but it's virtually impossible to have a debate about it. They may as well just award themselves a pay-rise and take the media hit because they will get lambasted regardless.

As many here love to point out, a 6-figure salary isn't that much in the south-east/London.

Maybe they should get paid proportionally to their constancy somehow

My personal issue isn't the amount an MP gets paid, it's the quality of MP we get for that money. You only have to think of Grayling to know that minimum wage would be too much for him!

I'd prefer less MPs but higher calibre and pay accordingly. Maybe MPs should be suitably 'qualified' to be given the job .... just like any other profession is.

[northernladuk]

Got to admit there isn't a chance in hell I'd do what they do for 80k a year, expenses and whatever, particularly in the south.

Problem is when your peers are constantly in the news with their hands in the till and saying stuff like being paid the same as GP then even if there was some argument around that amount then it falls on very deaf ears.

[d000hg]

Personally I have no problem them being paid more but it's virtually impossible to have a debate about it. They may as well just award themselves a pay-rise and take the media hit because they will get lambasted regardless.

As many here love to point out, a 6-figure salary isn't that much in the south-east/London.

Maybe they should get paid proportionally to their constituency somehow

[SueEllen]

...but not as much as Peter Bottomley. He's now got a gofundme.

https://metro.co.uk/2021/10/07/gofun...lary-15379141/

The British public has taken pity on a hard-done-by MP and set up fundraising pages after he revealed the struggles of getting by on his generous annual salary.

Sir Peter Bottomley, the ‘Father of the House’ as the MP in the Commons with the longest continuous service, hit headlines yesterday after saying parliamentarians should be given a pay rise.

He thinks MPs, who are paid £81,932 annually, should be paid the same amount as GPs – whose average salary in England is £100,700. The average salary across the UK was £31,461, as of last year.

His comments in the New Statesman came on the day Universal Credit was cut by £20 a week for the country’s most vulnerable people.

Although Sir Peter said he currently is not struggling financially, he believes the situation is ‘desperately difficult’ for his newer colleagues.

The representative, for Worthing West in West Sussex, added: ‘I don’t know how they manage. It’s really grim.’

The MP was taken to task and ridiculed online, with social media users saying he needed to ‘get a grip’ with reality.

Many pointed out his salary does not include an MP’s generous expenses allowance, and others suggested if he had his wages cut by the equivalent of the Universal Credit cuts he would lose out on more than £17,000 a year.