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Members' Salaries, Pensions and Allowances

The right hon. and learned Lady and I have been in the House a long time. In the past, we have set links, but the problem is that when that link produces a reasonable pay increase, the Government say, ““We can't afford it and it blows a hole in public sector pay policy.”” Whatever the mechanism, we have ultimate responsibility for our pay increases. If we create a link and the result is that we get, say, a 3 per cent. pay rise, will the Government say that that is too much in the context of public sector pay? Unless we are prepared to implement whatever the link results in, we end up with the problem of having to vote on our own pay.