gmb45
21st June, 2009, 05:11 AM
John Bercow, keen to be the next Speaker, believes MPs should be paid ?100,000
MPs? pay would rise by 60 per cent to ?100,000 a year if Tory John Bercow ? favourite to win tomorrow?s vote on a new Commons Speaker ? had his way.
Mr Bercow, whose backing comes almost entirely from the Labour Party, believes MPs get far too little money for the work they do.
His support for the pay rise was revealed in a leaked letter to the body in charge of setting politicians? wages.
The disclosure came as Mr Bercow faced searching questions over whether he obeyed electoral rules when he started his political career as a local councillor.
In his own submission to the Senior Salaries Review Body, Mr Bercow complained about the ?perverse? way MPs? pay had fallen behind over the years ? and he urged it to take radical action to improve it.
He maintained that an MP deserved to earn the same as a GP or a local council boss.
That would mean lifting their pay from its current level of ?64,000 to around ?100,000.
Mr Bercow wrote: ?I am sceptical as to whether the correct comparators have been used for the purposes of assessing our pay.
?You stress that you do not look at how hard MPs work but at what our responsibilities are. I suggest that those responsibilities, in terms of breadth, scope and contact with the public, are comparable with those of a General Practitioner or the Chief Executive of a medium-sized local authority. The use of such a comparator would point to a significant increase in remuneration for MPs.?
Mr Bercow further justifies the wage rise on the grounds that many MPs do not have outside earnings, an argument often used by Labour.
?Most of us view our role as an MP as a full-time career,? says Mr Bercow in the letter written just over two years ago.
?This is partly because we consider it right to devote the vast bulk of our time to the role and partly because the sheer weight of voter representations and constituency activity are such as to necessitate a full-time commitment.?
Although the Speaker does not have the power to set MPs? pay, as chairman of the House of Commons Commission he or she would have enormous influence over the process, which is why Mr Bercow?s comments are so interesting.
In a further development, former friends of Mr Bercow have claimed that they ?helped to fix it? for him at the outset of his political career as a 23-year-old councillor in Lambeth, South London, so that he appeared to be a local.
They claim that when he was elected in May 1986 he was not resident in the borough ? as the rules demanded ? but was living with his parents in Finchley, North London.
Electoral records from the time show that in May 1986 he was listed simultaneously at a home in South London owned by former Tory MP Teresa Gorman and at his parents? home in north London.
Contacted last night, Mrs Gorman said: ?I have no recollection of Mr Bercow living in my house in Hopton Road.?
In a statement, Mr Bercow?s spokesman said: ?John did rent a property in Lambeth and he lived in the borough full-time after leaving university until 1993.
'In the mid-Eighties, the electoral register was much slower at picking up the movement of people than it is today. It is a matter of public record that John has argued for MPs? pay to be pegged to that of an appropriate profession, which could be that of a general practitioner.?
MPs? pay would rise by 60 per cent to ?100,000 a year if Tory John Bercow ? favourite to win tomorrow?s vote on a new Commons Speaker ? had his way.
Mr Bercow, whose backing comes almost entirely from the Labour Party, believes MPs get far too little money for the work they do.
His support for the pay rise was revealed in a leaked letter to the body in charge of setting politicians? wages.
The disclosure came as Mr Bercow faced searching questions over whether he obeyed electoral rules when he started his political career as a local councillor.
In his own submission to the Senior Salaries Review Body, Mr Bercow complained about the ?perverse? way MPs? pay had fallen behind over the years ? and he urged it to take radical action to improve it.
He maintained that an MP deserved to earn the same as a GP or a local council boss.
That would mean lifting their pay from its current level of ?64,000 to around ?100,000.
Mr Bercow wrote: ?I am sceptical as to whether the correct comparators have been used for the purposes of assessing our pay.
?You stress that you do not look at how hard MPs work but at what our responsibilities are. I suggest that those responsibilities, in terms of breadth, scope and contact with the public, are comparable with those of a General Practitioner or the Chief Executive of a medium-sized local authority. The use of such a comparator would point to a significant increase in remuneration for MPs.?
Mr Bercow further justifies the wage rise on the grounds that many MPs do not have outside earnings, an argument often used by Labour.
?Most of us view our role as an MP as a full-time career,? says Mr Bercow in the letter written just over two years ago.
?This is partly because we consider it right to devote the vast bulk of our time to the role and partly because the sheer weight of voter representations and constituency activity are such as to necessitate a full-time commitment.?
Although the Speaker does not have the power to set MPs? pay, as chairman of the House of Commons Commission he or she would have enormous influence over the process, which is why Mr Bercow?s comments are so interesting.
In a further development, former friends of Mr Bercow have claimed that they ?helped to fix it? for him at the outset of his political career as a 23-year-old councillor in Lambeth, South London, so that he appeared to be a local.
They claim that when he was elected in May 1986 he was not resident in the borough ? as the rules demanded ? but was living with his parents in Finchley, North London.
Electoral records from the time show that in May 1986 he was listed simultaneously at a home in South London owned by former Tory MP Teresa Gorman and at his parents? home in north London.
Contacted last night, Mrs Gorman said: ?I have no recollection of Mr Bercow living in my house in Hopton Road.?
In a statement, Mr Bercow?s spokesman said: ?John did rent a property in Lambeth and he lived in the borough full-time after leaving university until 1993.
'In the mid-Eighties, the electoral register was much slower at picking up the movement of people than it is today. It is a matter of public record that John has argued for MPs? pay to be pegged to that of an appropriate profession, which could be that of a general practitioner.?