Two thirds of the British public want to see MP perks and pay cut back

Members of Parliament earn over £77,000 and have their Westminster meals subsidised. And average Brits are not happy.

A poll commissioned by an HR company found that two in every three British people is unhappy about how much their MP earns and that they get subsidised expenses on top. 

HR technology platform Perkbox asked Censuswide to quiz 2,000 people about politicians’ work ethos and the results were rather striking.

Over 64% thought that MPs should be paid less, while 62% saw the extra perks – like paid expenses – of the job as “not fair”.

The basic annual salary for a Member of Parliament is, as of April 1 this year, £77,379. And MPs with special jobs, such as ministers, receive extra salaries – to the tune of £67,505 in 2017. That’s a cool £142,500 for Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt and Sajid Javid.

But many MPs stand to make a hell of a lot more money through their non-parliamentary work, like non-executive roles in private companies, consultancy and press appearances.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the ten richest people in Parliament are all Conservatives. Among them is Tory grandee Kenneth Clark, who earned nearly £300,000 last year (mostly from a book deal on his auto-biography); and Jacob Rees-Mogg, who collected £178,000 from his punditry jobs and partnership in the investment company Somerset Capital Management.

And while the Prime Minister’s combined salary as MP and Government leader is of £150,402, Theresa May enjoys another £2 million in accommodation, transport, holiday and pension perks.

The average weekly salary in Britain is £539 or just over £28,000 a year. In London the average goes up to short of £40,0000.

If you thought that was already a ridiculous wealth gap between Westminster and Wakefield, you should also remember that MPs receive a series of work benefits that include subsidised meals, travel costs, and London accommodation for those from outside of the capital.

And while 60% of those surveyed by Perkbox agreed MPs should be given no perks at all, a respectable 10% thought something should be given to our elected representatives for free: an online ethics course!

Joana Ramiro is a reporter for Left Foot Forward. You can follow her on Twitter for all sorts of rants here

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