MPs give up pay rise for 2008
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Government ministers will forgo their pay rises for 2008/09 to reflect public sector wage restraint.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has rejected a recommendation from a review into Westminster pay that would have seen MPs receive an additional £650 'catch-up' payment on top of their annual pay rises for each of the next three years.
Mr Brown's spokesman said that the decision to give up ministerial pay rises for one year was made by the Prime Minister at a Cabinet meeting earlier.
Ahead of a vote on MPs salaries in the House of Commons on July 3, he also rejected a proposal from Sir John Baker's review that their pay should be linked to the three-month average public sector earnings index, and said that they should instead rise in line with the mid-point of a basket of public sector settlements.
With some settlements yet to be negotiated, it is not clear exactly what rise this would produce for MPs in 2008/09.
Mr Brown accepted recommendations from the Senior Salaries Review Body for pay rises next year of 1.5 per cent for senior civil servants, 2.2 per cent for senior military officers and very senior NHS managers, and slightly over 2.5 per cent for judges.
MPs' pay is normally linked to the rise in average increases in senior civil service salaries.
The pay restraint applies only to the portion of salaries related to their ministerial jobs.
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