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Members' Salaries, Pensions and Allowances

I was simply offering a way of introducing a productivity gain to finance the pay increase, which is something we demand of other people. Abolishing the communications allowance would go a long way to addressing the problem. Let me conclude by reiterating my two main points. First, we need an uprating mechanism that does not involve annual, or even biannual, decisions, but that just happens automatically. The one I suggest is the average increase in public sector earnings during the previous year. Governments would have to agree to take their hands off, because although they might gain something for a year or two, they would lose it further into the future. Secondly, we have to set a base salary from which to operate, and I do not believe that the current salary is the right one, as there is a lot of catching up to do. We should set a salary that we think is right by looking at the pay of what we consider to be equivalent public sector posts. That should be done on a free vote of the House of Commons, with a range of salaries to choose from. I have given the salaries of some posts, and I think Members will be surprised to find that 7,000 local council officers are paid more than us and that the chairmen of immigration tribunals are paid almost £100,000 a year.