MP pay rise unacceptable

British Prime Minister David Cameron has warned against “unacceptable” plans to increase MPs annual salary from £66,396 to £74,000 in 2015.

The remarks were made in response to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority’s (Ipsa) announcement of an 11 percent hike in the salaries of MPs.

“I think it would be wrong for MPs to get a big pay rise at a time of public sector pay restraint…,” Cameron said at his weekly Commons question session.

“The reason why this is not the right time for this pay rise is because most people are going through the biggest cost of living crisis in a generation.”

He also warned Ipsa to rethink the plan.

“No-one wants to go back to MPs voting on their own pay but we have got to have a process and an outcome that can build public confidence,” the British premier said.

When asked whether he would consider legislation in order to overturn the plan, he said he was “ruling nothing out.”

Labour Party leader Ed Miliband also said that it would be wrong for MPs to receive a £7,000 pay rise, one many times the rate of inflation, while ordinary families are struggling with a “crisis in their living standards.

Ipsa is an independent body responsible for administering and regulating the expenses of MPs. It has also been tasked with setting the salary levels of MPs in order to end problems related to MPs deciding on their own salaries, known as the expenses scandal in 2009.

This comes as recent polls have found that 40 percent of British households say it has become more difficult for them to provide food for their families compared to last year