7:00pm Wednesday 10th March 2010
DORSET MPs due for a 1.5 per cent pay rise say they will refuse the pay rise or donate the increase to charity.
All MPs have been awarded a £1,000-a-year rise by the independent Senior Salaries Review Body.
South Dorset Labour MP Jim Knight is rejecting the increase and North Dorset MP Bob Walter is donating his to two local hospital charities.
Mr Knight said: “In common with all Government ministers, I’m not taking any pay rise in my ministerial or MP salary.
“With the financial position the country is in, there are lots of people in the public sector who will experience pay freezes or very small increases.
“It’s not acceptable for us as MPs to take an increase when others cannot.”
Conservative MP Mr Walter will donate his pay rise to the Friends of Blandford Community Hospital and Westminster Memorial Hospital League of Friends.
“When we are asking for pay restraint and freezes for senior public servants it would not be appropriate to take this pay rise at this time,” he said.
“Local NHS hospitals are already feeling the effects of public spending cuts, and I feel I should make a small but symbolic contribution to our local NHS services.
“I have the greatest admiration for and have supported, in the past, the ‘friends’ charities in both Blandford and Shaftesbury.”
Oliver Letwin, West Dorset Conservative MP, said his party would freeze ministerial and MP elements of salaries if they win power – and cut them by five per cent. He added: “If we do manage to form a government we will freeze and reduce ministerial salaries.”
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