Salmond: Aid appeal

A leading Westminster politician has urged MPs to give up one day's salary for the tsunami aid appeal.

The SNP's Alex Salmond uses an article in the House Magazine to call on his colleagues to forgo their pay for one day to help those whose lives have been destroyed by the Boxing Day disaster.

If every MP took up Salmond's challenge over £100,000 could be raised for the relief effort.

"As members of parliament, we have the opportunity to lead a further wave of giving through allocating a day's pay to the relief organisations," he writes.

"Of course, I am aware that many members will have there own long-term arrangements in place for charitable giving and that all members will have contributed at local or national level to the disaster appeal.

"However, a special payroll contribution has a number of advantages including the attraction of gift-aid tax relief, which further boosts the cause."

Salmond believes MPs can set an example which could then be levered into other workplaces to deliver a lasting culture of charitable giving.

Snowball

He says parliamentarians could "contribute to a snowball effect as company after company and workforce after workforce joins in the appeal".

The SNP leader says "payroll giving becomes a habit" - and could be used to eradicate poverty at home and abroad.

"Once people start it then they are likely to do it again. A brief calculation demonstrates how even if a fraction of the total workforce signs up then the sums raised could dwarf even the incredible spontaneous generosity demonstrated thus far.

"I would ask colleagues to support a payroll contribution from MPs. It will assist the contribution to the immediate disaster but can also help bring about a permanent shift, which would truly make poverty history."