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Members' Salaries, Pensions and Allowances

There lies another rub. The hon. Gentleman is right. I believe that it is better for us to accept the Government's proposal for this year. That would involve us asking our colleagues to accept pay restraint for this year in line with other public sector workers, and I support that course of action. However, we should not then leave a blank sheet—a carte blanche—thereafter. It might not be as easy as some might think either for Sir John Baker to come up with a report that commands the confidence of the House and of the public, let alone of the press, or for us to agree on what we should do. I heard what the Leader of the House said earlier. Of course she wants us to be able to get on with this. The chair of the parliamentary Labour party, the hon. Member for Manchester, Central (Tony Lloyd), also expressed his proper concern that we should ensure that we did the work between the end of May and the end of July. It all got a bit vague, however. The written statement referred to the end of May, but it could be the beginning of June, and it is likely to drift on. I therefore urge colleagues at least to give us the protection of having a system in place for next year, so that we can do the job that the hon. Member for Cannock Chase (Dr. Wright) alluded to, and get this right. It might not be easy to find a comparator, although we could look at the New Zealand experience. My preference is therefore for the amendment tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for North Devon (Nick Harvey), the right hon. Member for Penrith and The Border (David Maclean) and others, which would at least lock in a system for next year and set a top whack of 1.9 per cent. so that nobody would think that we were building a system that would give us a great bonus. That would give us a safety net while we work these things out.