COVID-19: MPs to no longer receive pay rise of more than £3,000 after IPSA U-turns due to pandemic impact

MPs will no longer receive a pay rise of more than £3,000 next year following a U-turn by the independent body that decides their salaries.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) has written to all MPs to inform them that their pay will be frozen next year, due to the "unprecedented impact" of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In October, IPSA came under fire for recommending a pay hike for MPs in the middle of the coronavirus crisis.

The independent body had recommended keeping the existing method for calculating MPs' pay, which links it to public sector earnings, and could have seen MPs receive an inflation-busting £3,360 pay increase next April.

However, with the government braced for millions to be left unemployed due to the economic fall-out from COVID-19, many MPs criticised IPSA's decision and vowed to hand any extra pay to charities.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer were among those to speak out against a potential salary increase.

And some MPs even proposed changing legislation to take the pay decision out of IPSA's hands, if it pushed ahead with the planned hike.

In the letter to all MPs on Friday, IPSA's interim chair Richard Lloyd announced the body would no longer be using its usual method for deciding next year's salary level.

"The unprecedented impact of the COVID pandemic has had an unexpected, but different, effect on public and private sector earnings," he wrote.

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"It is clear that applying the forthcoming official statistic for public sector earnings growth would result in a salary increase for MPs that would be inconsistent with the wider economic data and would not reflect the reality that many constituents are facing this year.

"The IPSA board has therefore decided that the salary for Members of Parliament will remain unchanged for the financial year 2021-22."

MPs are currently paid £81,932 per year and have enjoyed a pay rise in each of the last six years.

IPSA was set up in the wake of public outrage over the parliamentary expenses scandal in 2009.

John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "This victory for common sense is an early Christmas present for taxpayers.

"With the public finances in such a dire state, many public sector salaries have rightly been capped - so it's only fair that politicians' pay rises are also postponed.

"But if IPSA really wants parliament to deliver for the British public, MPs' pay should be linked to the country's economic performance."