Should we be paying our MP’s more?
Dr Steve McCabe, Associate Professor at Birmingham City University give his expert opinion on MP’s pay. He discusses whether better pay would attract brighter candidates to run the country.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Well, the question of what we pay our MPs is one that's been knocking about for as long
00:06 as I can remember. The fact that they're going to be paid, because of course this is being
00:10 decided by an independent review body, 91,000 plus, is beyond the dreams of many people.
00:17 Now, of course, if I put in context the fact that the average wage is just about under
00:21 34,000, and of course that includes bonuses, and of course a lot of people have paid an
00:25 awful lot less than that, the idea of earning 91,000 plus expenses, and of course MPs are
00:32 so allowed to have external earnings, you know, within the rules as it were, as I say,
00:37 big sort of money for many people, and of course there is a degree perhaps of average.
00:42 That's around three times what the average worker earns. A salary of over £90,000 for MPs does seem
00:49 a lot. However, some would argue it should be more. They say that by paying more will attract a better
00:56 calibre of candidate, so important perhaps for running the country.
01:01 Well again, you know, that's a good argument for the so-called professional MPs, and indeed I do
01:07 accept that if you're the sort of the chair of a company or a senior executive, yeah, they're not
01:12 going to sort of work for 90,000 plus, you know, dare I say, all the sort of beauty you get being
01:17 in the sort of the public eye and being sort of the beck and call of your constituents.
01:20 The thing is though, it's then the sort of questions of where the extra money might come
01:24 from, if you're going to pay them what, a quarter of a million pounds perhaps, you know, is that
01:28 enough to attract the sort of people we're talking about? I don't know, maybe, but I don't think we're
01:33 there at this moment.
01:35 It's been widely reported that record numbers of MPs will be resigning before the next election.
01:41 Is salary a major factor in that decision?
01:45 They probably hope that by sort of leaving early they'll sort of get on the gravy train and they'll
01:48 get the sort of the jobs that sort of attract the money. We hope of course that in the next
01:51 parliament we have sort of re-able people, because dare I say it, this country has
01:56 significant challenges in the sort of the years ahead.