By Lucy Ashton

The MSPs we have in the Scottish Parliament at  Holyrood at present are a pretty dull bunch – or mediocre to say the least.

Now a Tory  political commentator has called for the pay of MSPs to be doubled, claiming it would help “solve” issues with Holyrood.

Spin doctor Andy Maciver, a former Scottish Conservatives head of communication, believes that by increasing the salary and making it more than MPs at Westminster, it would lead to the best possible candidates coming forward.

Mr Maciver claims the remuneration for MSPs is “poor” considering the work they do, which is about 70 – 80 hours a week, and the negative impact it has on their private lives.

MSPs currently get a basic salary of £67,661. Ministers are paid almost £100,000, cabinet ministers £118,000 and the first minister gets £165,000.

They are also entitled to claim expenses for accommodation, staff costs, office costs, travel, and engaging and communicating with constituents.

Green MSP Patrick Harvie, for example, ran up a bill for £2,500 for attending an environmental conference in Europe. Some MSPs even claim for local bus fares.

The current allowance they can claim is up to £60,700, which covers constituency work including employing staff, running an office and meeting constituents. In comparison, MPs receive just over £84,000 a year.

Writing in a column in The Herald, Maciver said: “These are changes which could usher in the sort of great change which might solve many of the problems we have identified. I will warn you now though, reader, that you are extremely unlikely to support any of these three ideas.”

He then lists his ideas that suggested a second-elected chamber to oversee MSPs with members from the parties that do no seek election and to increase the number of sitting MSPs to allow more work to be done and achieved.

He wrote: “The third step is to pay MSPs more. Much more. MSPs are not badly paid compared to ordinary workers, but then MSPs are not ordinary workers. When mapped against what we expect of them, the remuneration is poor.

“We expect them to be highly intelligent, for starters, and experts in a wide range of local and national matters, working, as they do in many cases, 70-80 hours every week.

“We also expect them to have no private life, or at least one they don’t mind being intruded upon at will. I would double the salary of all MSPs, ministers, cabinet secretaries and the first minister.

“If you don’t think our current crop deserve that, you may end up satisfied, because the extra funding is almost certain to encourage the very best to present themselves for election.”

He claimed that these solutions would counter the current woes in Holyrood led by the lack of opposition, which he claims leads to laziness, complacency or worse.

“And the outcome is poor policy thinking, poor consultation processes and, ultimately, poor legislation, which is of course the primary responsibility of our elected politicians.”