MPs should be granted big pay rises in the wake of the expenses scandal, according to two senior members of the Conservative Party.
Tory MP Patrick Cormack said that MPs’ salaries should be doubled from their current level of around £65,000 in exchange for the abolition of most of their allowances, Reuters has reported.
“To ensure that members could perform their parliamentary and constituency duties effectively, and have, where necessary, a second home, the salary of members would have to be doubled at least,” Cormack wrote to the Committee on Standards in Public Life earlier this year.
He admitted the idea might be “deemed politically unacceptable”.
Former minister Douglas Hogg, who included a claim for moat cleaning on his expenses and is stepping down at the next election, said MPs should be paid a six-figure sum.
“My own conclusion is that in order not to deter the professional and business classes from coming into the House of Commons, MPs should be paid a salary of around £100,000 together with appropriate expenses,” he told the committee.
Conservative leader David Cameron distanced himself from the comments. “David Cameron has repeatedly made it clear that we need to reduce the overall cost of politics and that MPs should no longer vote on their pay,” the Conservatives said in a statement.
Only last week, Cameron revealed plans to cut ministers’ pay by up to 25% if the Tories were elected to power.
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