British MPs Set for £2.2k Pay Rise as Brits Face Tax Hike

LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 21: Labour Party campaigners pose for a selfie outside Downing Str
Photo by Rob Pinney/Getty Images
Nathaniel Charles

British MPs are set to receive a £2,200 pay rise on April 1st that will raise their taxpayer-funded basic salary to £84,144 a year, on the same day Britons are to be clobbered with an income tax rise.

The 2.7% MP pay rise will be in line with inflation and other public sector workers’ salaries, following a temporary freeze on MPs’ salaries due to coronavirus.

The April 1st MP’s pay rise will coincide on exactly the same day that Britons face a National Insurance rise of 1.25p on the pound. The reduction in take home pay will be considerable, especially for middle-class earners: someone earning £20,000 a year will now pay an extra £89 in tax, and an individual who earns £50,000 will be forced to pay an additional £464 a year.

Both Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer have voiced their opposition to the pay increase for MPs, however, have not moved to block the payment or change the law to stop the pay rise, the BBC reports. Nor has there been any meaningful opposition to tax rises from Parliament, nor to the profligate spending that’s claimed to make the rise a necessity.

Alongside the National Insurance increase, Brits are also facing a rising cost of living due to the government’s ‘Net Zero’ agenda where Brits are expected to have to pay new green taxes, on top of existing stealth taxes such as 25.5 per cent on electric bills.

The government is pursuing this unpopular policy, despite 60 per cent of British people rejecting the cost of the government’s Net Zero policies.

Multiple MPs have also spoken out about the new green taxes, and Conservative MP, Steve Baker, went as far as to say that “the cost of net-zero could deliver a political crisis greater than the Poll Tax, and these figures show that the Government is heading straight for such an eventuality”.

Over the last two years, the British government additionally shelled out £70 billion on the coronavirus furlough scheme — including £5 billion fraudulent claims — as well as £37 billion on a failed ‘test and trace’ app.

Despite Brits having to tighten their belts in the face of new taxes, Richard Lloyd, chairman of Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) has doubled down on the MPs pay rise saying that “this is the first increase in pay for MPs in two years and follows the average of increases across the public sector last year”.

“MPs play a vital role in our democracy and this is reflected in their pay. It is right that MPs are paid fairly for the responsibility and the unseen work they do helping their constituents, which dramatically increased last year”, Lloyd said.

Lloyd insisted that for “parliament to reflect society, it is vital that people from all walks of life can be an MP”. The average annual salary for full-time employees in the United Kingdom was £31,285 in 2021.

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