BRITISH PRIME minister Gordon Brown has said he would be willing to take a pay cut, while the man bidding to take his place has said that he will cut his salary by a third if he is elected next year.
Speaking to young unemployed people, Mr Brown, who earns £195,000 (€223,000), said he was “not in this job for the money”, and would accept a pay cut as part of a wider agreement with other MPs.
“I am not worried about pay myself. If there was an agreement that we could all do it, I’d be very much wanting to be part of that. But I’m not in this job for the money,” he told the BBC 1Xtra audience.
MPs, who are paid £64,000 (€73,000) a year, received a 2.33 per cent pay rise earlier this year, but Mr Brown imposed a freeze on any rise for ministers, saying that it was the “right thing to do” in a time of economic hardship.
The issue of MPs’ expenses dominated the political agenda before the summer, following a series of disclosures that showed highly questionable practices by many of members over recent years, including one claim to clean out a moat at his country manor.
The leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron, is proposing significant cuts in politicians’ pay, with some reports suggesting that he would cut a quarter off the pay bill immediately on election. While he would not confirm the figure, Mr Cameron said: “Clearly, if we are going to ask the country to undertake a programme of reducing some parts of public spending and getting our finances in order and getting the budget deficit down, we need to show that everyone is going to share in that work, including government and including politicians.
“I want to make sure that politics costs us less in Britain, and I would make sure that my government would take a lead in that if we were fortunate enough to be elected.”
British cabinet ministers are paid £144,520 (€166,000), including their MPs’ salary of £64,766. Under Mr Cameron’s proposed plan this would fall to £124,580, while his own salary as prime minister, if he was elected, would fall to £164,500.
