Outrage as UK MPs pocket a pretty packet

Updated on: 21 June,2009 07:34 AM IST |
Khalid A-H Ansari | smdmail@mid-day.com

British members of Parliament are set to pocket a u00c3u0083u00c2u0083u00c3u0082u00c2u0082u00c3u0083u00c2u0082u00c3u0082u00c2u00a3 10 million pay rise despite the public outrage over the recent expenses scandal.

Only a day after the outcry over MPs' attempts to censor documents detailing their extravagant and illegal expenditures, moves for salary increases of up to 10 to 15 per cent have come to light.

Backbencher members of Parliament are currently paid approximately Rs 50 lakh a year and frontbenchers far more.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said he was furious at the prospect of a salary increase. He said: "At a time like this when thousands are losing jobs, it is simply wrong for MPs to get a pay rise."

A spokesman for the Tax-Payers' Alliance said: "Wage rises for MPs in a recession would be unacceptable at any time, but against the background of the expenses scandal this is a disgrace.

"Far too many MPs have demonstrated their willingness to cash in at taxpayers' expense. There is no justification for them to get a rise. This is an obscene suggestion."

Prime minister Gordon Brown and Opposition leader David Cameron have admitted that the widespread blanking out of receipts on the Internet with blocks of black ink was unacceptable and should be scrapped.

Even as Parliament is planning to block future release of expenses after the humiliation of MPs this week, Scotland Yard has launched a criminal investigation into four MPs and a peer for allegedly false expenses claims.

The fraud inquiry, which could lead to prosecution, is understood to focus on claims for "phantom mortgages".

Some 200 MPs have paid back almost 5 lakh poundsu00a0in expenses since the scandal broke.

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