Part-Time Workers
The Times newspaper yesterday contained excellent news for the country - after getting away with murder for years part-time Westminster MPs face the prospect of being held to account and having their pay cut.
What a good idea - one that's long overdue.
Why didn't the last Labour Government - which enjoyed an overall majority and was in power for 13 years - tackle this issue long before now.
Yet it's under the much maligned Tory/Lib Dem Coalition Government that action may finally be taken to end the scandal of MPs who claim full-time salaries while effectively working part-time hours - though it's far from a done deal as yet.
Because you can bet that some MPs will fight tooth and nail to be able to have their cake and eat it at the same time - which would not be tolerated in other walks of life, of course.
Some high profile names are likely to be unhappy at the new plans - Tory, Labour and Lib Dem MPs - so watch this space for further details.
Meantime here's what The Times article had to say - I've also posted two companion pieces to the main article which follow on below.
MPs with multiple jobs face a pay cut
Sixty-eight MPs each make more than £10,000 a year from outside earnings
MPs face having their parliamentary pay docked for taking second jobs under controversial proposals to be published on Monday, The Times has learnt.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) will outline reforms to backbenchers’ pay, which are likely to be fiercely opposed by MPs returning to the Commons next week. The options include introducing regional pay for MPs and linking their salaries to jobs that they carried out before they became MPs.
But Whitehall sources said that Ipsa, which took over the setting of backbenchers’ pay from MPs last year, is said to favour penalising the dozens of MPs who take second jobs. Any consultancy, legal, business or other work that is still carried out after an MP enters Parliament is likely to be taken into account under the plan.
One former Cabinet minister described the idea as “absurd” last night. MPs earn a basic salary of £65,738 a year. In addition, they can claim allowances to cover the cost of running an office and employing staff as well as maintaining a constituency residence and, in some cases, London accommodation.
An analysis by The Times this summer showed that 68 MPs each make more than £10,000 a year from outside earnings. The total is almost £6 million; 18 MPs earn more than £100,000.
The highest earners include David Miliband, Labour MP for South Shields; Geoffrey Cox, Tory MP for Torridge and West Devon; Tim Yeo, Tory MP for South Suffolk; and Nicholas Soames, Tory MP for Mid Sussex. All earn more than £190,000 from second jobs or outside interests. But MPs earning lower amounts are likely to be the most affected by the link to second jobs.
The proposal, which will go out to consultation, will be resisted by MPs who often rely on outside income for school fees, accommodation and other expenses. But neither MPs nor the Government will have a veto.
Peter Lilley, the Tory MP for Hitchen and Harpenden, who earns more than £100,000 from outside interests, condemned the idea as absurd. The implication, he said, was that MPs with outside jobs were not doing their parliamentary work properly. “Nobody in my constituency has ever suggested I underperform,” he added.
Mark Field, MP for the City of London, who earnt £90,000 last year through advisory work, described the proposals as “totally unacceptable”, particularly in the case of MPs, including himself, who had to buy homes in Central London constituencies.
“You’ve got to look at the sort of people you would get in politics — you’re only going to get independently wealthy people or young people who think that earning £60,000 is a fortune. I don’t think it’s going to help the calibre of our political class.”
Jacob Rees-Mogg, Tory MP for North East Somerset, who earns more than £120,000 through his investment management firm, described it as an “interesting idea” but said that his support would depend on Ipsa’s motives. “If it is an attempt to make us all do nothing else except be MPs then I would be against it,” he said.
A precise formula has not been worked out yet and will not apply before 2015, if the measures go ahead.
Ipsa was set up in 2009 after the scandal over MPs’ expenses, and drew up new allowances for backbenchers in 2010. In February it announced that MPs’ pay would be frozen for 2012-13 and that there would be a public consultation on future years.
The Times has also learnt that MPs will be subject to the 1 per cent pay cap that applies to all public sector workers for the next two years, before any of the new changes take effect. Ipsa has set a 1.5 per cent increase in MPs pension contributions to mirror rises in public-sector pension contributions. A spokesman said that general options and questions would be put forward in a paper on Monday, which would go to “everyone” for consultation until December.
Ipsa emphasised that the proposals would not determine ministers’ salaries nor interfere with how much MPs could earn outside Parliament.
