The independent parliamentary standards authority, Ipsa, is to reveal its decision to increase salaries by 11% despite a lack of support from the prime minister and the leader of the Labour party. MPs' salaries will then go up annually in line with national wages.
To pay for the increase, Ipsa is imposing greater pension contributions on MPs and clearing up discrepancies in the expenses system. A Whitehall source said the "across the board" reform would not cost taxpayers more.
Funding for the salary increase would come from cuts to MPs' pension schemes that go far deeper than published proposals.
Ipsa was given full statutory control of MPs' pay and pensions in the wake of the 2009 expenses scandal.
Under the rules, parliamentarians do not get a vote on its recommendations but they automatically become law. Ipsa's decision will prove politically difficult for Cameron and Ed Miliband.Earlier this year the prime minister said the cost of politics should fall under the salary review and the above-inflation rise will be seen in sharp contrast to the 1% rise in public sector pay packets.
Miliband has said he will not accept a pay rise and legislate to reduce MPs' annual wage rises, which would inevitably mean the disbandment of Ipsa as an independent body.
Only the deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has accepted the independence of the decision.
Charles Walker MP, vice-chairman of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers, who has been championing the freedom of Ipsa to make an unencumbered decision on wages, said "a little more pain" on pensions was acceptable in order to "draw a line under the issue".
Source: theguardian.com
Author: Daniel Boffey
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