Boris Johnson does not think MPs should get a pay rise, Downing Street has said.
“MPs’ salaries are obviously decided by an independent body but given the circumstances, the PM doesn’t believe MPs should be receiving a pay rise,” the prime minister’s spokesman told reporters.
The intervention comes as Britons continue to feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid reports that Chancellor Rishi Sunak is poised to freeze the pay of millions of public sector workers.
Mr Johnson has previously announced a freeze in ministerial salaries, a sum paid on top of what they get as an MP.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), which sets MPs’ salaries, last month recommended an increase worth £3,300 from next April.
If enacted, this will take an MP’s annual pay packet to more than £85,000.
In a report released last month, IPSA proposed continuing to link parliamentarians’ pay to wage growth in the public sector and using October’s three-month average public sector wage growth as the benchmark.
Its final decision will be announced next month.
IPSA’s interim chairman Richard Lloyd said the body has a statutory duty to review MPs’ pay in the first year of each parliament.
“Given the huge economic uncertainties arising from the coronavirus pandemic, we do not think it is right to depart from this approach now,” he said.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has voiced his opposition to the pay rise, telling LBC Radio last month: “We shouldn’t have it.”
IPSA was set up in the wake of the 2009 MPs’ expenses scandal to ensure that MPs were not involved in deciding their own remuneration.