Alicia Kearns calls for MPs’ pay to be frozen

Mrs Kearns has signed a letter with 51 other MPs calling on the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) to freeze pay packets because of the economic and social challenges the UK has faced through the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.

The group want IPSA to scrap the three per cent rise in salary MPs were due to get for the coming year.

Mrs Kearns posted on Twitter this afternoon (Tuesday): “Given the enormous pressures on our nation due to the pandemic, a pay rise for MPs simply cannot be justified at this time.

“I have worked tirelessly to support constituents in great need, and I urge IPSA, who control our pay, to listen to my colleagues and me.”

Dehenna Davison, MP for Bishop Auckland, who is leading the campaign, posted: “Today, we have written to the interim chair of IPSA asking that they freeze MPs’ pay.

“In the current circumstances we do not consider a pay rise appropriate or justifiable.

“Whilst so many of our constituents face uncertainty, it is only right we play our part.”

The basic annual salary of an MP in the House of Commons is £81,932.