Gavin slams "outrageous" £7,000 bumper pay-rise for MPs
Gavin Newlands, the newly-elected Member of Parliament for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, has today criticised the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) after their announcement of their intention to go ahead with their plans for an “outrageous” £7,000-a-year pay rise for MPs.
Gavin wrote to IPSA’s Chief Executive, Sir Ian Kennedy, in June to urge him to abandon the planned 10 per cent pay-rise for MPs. The Paisley and Renfrewshire North MP announced that – if IPSA refused to abandon the plans for a pay-rise for MPs after their consultation – he would make necessary arrangements in order to ensure that he did not financially benefit from the pay-rise, and so that local charities and people were the sole benefactors of this unwanted pay-rise.
Gavin Newlands, the MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, said:
“I am bitterly disappointed that IPSA have decided to go ahead with their plans to give MPs an outrageous pay-rise of £7,000, despite protests from myself and other MPs.
“IPSA’s decision to award a lavish pay-rise to MPs - in the wake of the UK Government’s budget that seen the Tories picking the pockets cash-strapped families in Renfrewshire and, indeed, across Scotland - is simply out-of-touch and completely unacceptable.
“Workers across Scotland, in both the public and private sectors, are receiving modest pay rises – if any at all. People, families and communities across Renfrewshire are currently feeling the pinch during a time of harsh austerity and severe financial difficulty for many. Therefore, it is simply not right that I, as their MP, should take a pay-rise.
“Unfortunately, the salaries of MPs are set and paid by IPSA and, rather ridiculously, it is not possible for MPs to refuse to accept this pay-rise.
“I made a pledge to people of Paisley and Renfrewshire North in June that I would not take this £7,000 pay increase if IPSA ignored our protests and went ahead with it any way – I will stand by this pledge.
“I, personally, will make the necessary arrangements to ensure that I do not financially benefit from IPSA’s pay-rise for MPs – the only benefactors from this pay-rise will be local charities and my constituents in Renfrewshire.”
