MPs Martin Dochety Hughes and Brendan O’Hara with Cllr Jonathan McColl receive a total of £200,000 a year for keep us all in the dark.
By Bill Heaney
MPs are to receive a 2.7 per cent pay rise, taking their basic salary for 2019/20 from £77,379 to £79,468, it has been announced.
The local MPs are Martin Docherty Hughes, Scottish National Party, West Dunbartonshire, and Brendan O’Hara, Argyll and Bute.
Both, along with SNP-run West Dunbartonshire Council leader Jonathan McColl, have banned and boycotted The Dumbarton Democrat because they believe we ask too many penetrating questions.
At least we take it that is why since they have never told us, never had the courtesy to do so and locked us out of their last meeting where graft and corruption was being discussed.
And when Cllr McColl, who receives a salary of more than £32,000 plus special payments and expenses, said something along the lines of “openness and transparency are the most important things here”.
The £2,089 Westminster hike, effective from April 1, is well above the current inflation rate of 1.8 per cent on the main CPI measure.
It follows a 1.8 per cent boost to MPs’ pay last year, 1.4 per cent in 2017, 1.3 per cent in 2016 and a big increase from £67,000 to £74,000 in July 2015.
The Palace of Westminster MPs’ pay is linked to average rises in the public sector, as determined by the Office for National Statistics.
The 2.7 per cent figure was announced by the ONS on an interim basis in December and confirmed last week to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, which made the final announcement.
Following reforms to the way MPs’ pay is calculated, the rise is automatic and not subject to a vote in the House of Commons.
Chairs of Commons committees will enjoy a 2.7 per cent increase to the additional salary they receive on top of their basic pay, taking it from £15,509 to £15,928. Ministers’ salaries are determined separately.
General secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, Mark Serwotka, said: “It is an outrage that MPs are rewarding themselves with an above inflation pay rise while civil servants who do some of the most vital jobs in society, are still subject to a cruel 1pc de-facto pay cap.
“PCS are balloting 120,000 members for strike action over pay this summer and today’s news will only anger them further.”
MP salaries through the years April 2010 – £65,738 April 2011 – £65,738 April 2012 – £65,738 April 2013 – £66,396 April 2014 – £67,060 May 2015 – £74,000 April 2016 – £74,962 April 2017 – £76,011 April 2018 – £77,379
I am sure Jonathan will criticise this rise for MP’s after his criticism of the Community Party for voting to retain getting a cup of tea and a plain biscuit while attending Council Meetings?