MPs urged to accept smaller pay rise

The prime minister has said that members of the government will get pay rises of less than two per cent, and has urged MPs to follow suit.

In a bid to set an example for public sector workers who are being given similarly small wage increases in order to keep inflation down, Gordon Brown insisted Westminster salary hikes should be limited to 1.9 per cent this year.

Reports that the Senior Salaries Review Body had recommended a 2.8 per cent increase in MP pay angered police, nurses and other public sector workers who had been told that their own rises must stay below a two per cent ceiling.

Brown promised more generous settlements for public service workers in future years once economic prospects improved.

The final decision on Westminster pay rises will be made by MPs in a House of Commons vote, but Brown's comments will make it difficult for them to give themselves a larger increase.

Brown told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: "Government ministers must have a rate of pay increase that is below two per cent - 1.9 per cent. At the same time, my recommendation is that that is what goes for MPs.

"We must show exactly the same discipline that we ask of other people.

"The recommendations for significant pay rises will be rejected. It is very important that we send a message to nurses and police and all these people in the public sector... It is very important in this year that we break the back of inflation.

"In future years, we will do better by the police, we can do better by nurses and teachers, we will do better by the army."

The prime minister said that keeping a lid on pay rises was essential if Britain is to ride out the global economic turbulence expected this year.