What austerity? MPs demand £20K pay rise

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MPs have demanded a massive 32% increase in their salaries, despite recently voting through legislation which would impose brutal caps on benefits for working families.

An anonymous YouGov poll for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) found 69% of MPs think they deserve a bigger salary.

On average MPs believe they should earn £86,250 – a big increase on their current salary of £65,738, which is already three times the average salary in the UK.

Conservatives are the party most likely to demand a pay rise, despite being the parliamentary group which usually presses hardest for limiting public sector wages.

Forty-seven per cent of them believe they are underpaid and on average they believe they should be earning £96,740.

Thirty-nine per cent of Labour MPs and nine per cent of Liberal Democrat MPs believe they are underpaid.

MPs' pay will rise by one per cent in 2013 and another one per cent in 2014 along with general public sector pay.

This week, MPs voted to cap benefits by one per cent, two per cent below the rate of inflation. The move will hammer the unemployed but the majority of people feeling its effects will be low-income workers.

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