The MP for Wycombe, Steve Baker has said that politicians should “certainly” take a pay freeze as reports show the Chancellor is contemplating halting public sector wage rises in his spending plans set to be announced next Wednesday.
Mr Baker told LBC that it is an “ugly look” if politicians receive a £3,300 salary increase amid talks of a possible public sector pay freeze.
Trade unions have warned of a public sector strike if Chancellor Sunak does decide to halt public sector wages in his bid to bolster public finances after a huge rise in spending to fight coronavirus.
Those affected would likely be those who were considered key workers such as the police, teachers, armed forces and civil servants, various unions have riled against the news branding it as “insulting” saying their members have “underpinned the fabric of society” during the pandemic.
Steve Baker is one of 70 Conservative MPs calling for the government to change its Covid modelling: “There is a really fundamental, structural problem with the way science is being handled… What we’ve got is monopoly expert advice.”@JuliaHB1 | @SteveBakerHW pic.twitter.com/aFmqv0dkhc
— talkRADIO (@talkRADIO) November 23, 2020
Mr Baker said he believed MPs should also have to take a pay freeze, “I’ve already said on Twitter that MPs should certainly have a pay freeze, even if it means legislating to take from IPSA their independence on these matters,” Mr Baker said.
He told LBC’s Nick Ferrari he was “sick” of the MPs’ expenses situation “being mischaracterised”: “I have never had a slap up dinner at taxpayer expense other than the extent to which I am paid by the taxpayer.
“I am really parsimonious in my use of expenses, it’s not normally expenses in the expense people would consider them, it’s things like employing staff and staff having reasonable costs.
“Some of the things people believe about our expenses are simply untrue.”
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Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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