Veteran Tory M.P., Sir Patrick McCormack, has provoked disbelief amongst Shropshire people with a call for MP’s salaries to be doubled to a £130,000 a year. With Shropshire workers struggling by on a tiny percentage of this vast amount it just shows how out of touch the Conservatives remain with ordinary people.
The Tory M.P., who recently attempted to become the new speaker in the House of Commons, also claimed that the pay increase, from the current rate of £64,766, would ‘restore public confidence in Parliament’.
If only this was an isolated incident amongst the Conservatives……… Former Tory minister Douglas Hogg, who recently was the subject of much criticism for claiming taxpayer-funded expenses for cleaning his moat, called for MPs to be given six-figure salaries with ‘appropriate expenses’. Douglas Hogg said: ‘A parliamentary salary does not support the lifestyle to which most professional and business classes aspire.’
And another fellow Tory Peter Bone has suggested MPs were worth more than £280,000 a year.
Heather Kidd commented ‘Most of these Conservative M.P.’s are very rich people and this is yet more evidence that the “snouts in the trough” culture is alive and well in the Commons.’
Liberal Democrat MP Edward Davey described Sir Patrick’s remarks as ‘outrageous and offensive. He must be living on Planet Zog to think that doubling MPs’ salaries would restore faith in Parliament.’