MPs who will not take 10% rise are 'embarrassing'

Conservative backbench MP Adam Afriyie says MPs who have said they will donate their £7,000 pay rise to charity are "quite embarrassing".

IPSA, the independent body that sets MPs' pay, has said unless there is "new and compelling evidence", it will rise by 10%, from £67,060 to £74,000.

Mr Afriyie told Victoria Derbyshire that MPs who chose not to accept the increase were "grandstanding".

David Cameron has said the proposed 10% increase was not acceptable.

Labour frontbencher Gloria De Piero is one of the MPs who has said she would give the proposed rise to charity, describing it as "immoral".

Speaking during a panel discussion on the planned increase, Mr Afriyie said: "To be honest, I find that quite embarrassing. If somebody says, 'oh I'm going to be such a wonderful person and give all this to charity' it's just grandstanding.

"It's a bit distasteful to boast about that to get yourself off the hook publicly."

A self-made millionaire who grew up in Peckham, south London, Mr Afriyie is the MP for Windsor.

He said good pay for MPs was fundamental to democracy: "MPs are backbenchers. We're the heroes of all the voters. You vote us in, therefore we should be standing up for you in Parliament, doing things correctly.

"If, however, the government can offer and lure people to front bench jobs with big extra salaries then that actually makes democracy, to some degree, undermined."

IPSA was handed control of decisions over MPs' pay and expenses in the wake of the 2009 expenses scandal. It does not need to get the agreement of Parliament to bring in the changes.

Mr Cameron has previously urged IPSA to scrap the above-inflation increase, which was initially proposed to address complaints that pay had fallen behind the rest of the public sector.

But as it launched its final review of the proposals, IPSA restated its intention to press ahead with the increase, and said there appeared to be no "material" reason to change the recommendations.

IPSA has stressed that due to cuts in pensions and expenses - such as a ban on claiming for evening meals - the overall package of changes to MPs' remuneration will not cost taxpayers any more.

But MPs elected before 2015 - including Mr Cameron - will see a major boost to their pensions because they are based on final salary.

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