'If MPs keep giving up powers to Europe they should be paid less'

That's the stark message of a Ten Minute Rule Bill that Peter Lilley MP intends to introduce to the House of Commons later today.

Speaking to ePolitix, Mr Lilley, Deputy Tory Leader under William Hague, said:

"It's really to make them aware of what they're doing and a lot of people are sleepwalking into this process of giving away powers in successive European treaties so that we become less and less important and less and less significant... In every other walk of life, one's pay reflects one's responsibilities. If we're going to reduce those responsibilities we should accept that we're paid less and if we get more powers back from Europe and increase the responsibilities of Parliament again then that should be reflected positively in the remuneration of MPs.  If we're progressively reducing the powers of Westminster, that it's becoming more like a county council, then we should be paid accordingly.  It's moving gradually in that direction; it's got a long way to go before it's just a county council but it has lost a lot of power."

Mr Lilley adds:

"If we have less power we should get less pay.  If ever we get powers back from Europe we should have more pay."

There's an idea-and-a-half!  Let's double MPs' pay if they restore serious powers to the Commons.  That would be a bargain as far as we're concerned.

An extra £5,000 per MP for the end of CAP?  +£10,000 for the Social Chapter?  £20,000 extra for supremacy of UK courts? 

Comments

[George Hinton]

Good grief, sense and sensibility from a politician. Whatever next.

Mr Lilly's suggestion is excellent, go to the top of the class, voice it far and wide and lets make it policy. It may very well force a referendum, as greedy piggies never like to have their swill removed.

[passing leftie]

I look forward to Peter Lilley setting an example by giving a share of his salary to charity, and not claiming his Commons allowance.

[Iain]

I fully agree, and an argument I've been making for sometime. The rest of us get paid according to our responsibilities, why not MP's, and if MP's shed their responsibilities then it should be reflected in a smaller pay packet. I would support a £100,000 pay packet for MP's with full sovereignty over the laws of this country, but as MP's have shed some 70% of their law making responsibilities, that would equate to a £30k salary.

PS Tying MP's pay to law making responsibilities would immediately stop them signing away more of our powers to Brussels, for even though it shouldn't need an MP to personally feel the effects of their actions in their pay packets, it unfortunately seems to be the only way we can call a halt this haemorrhage of our powers of self determination.

[Deborah]

Great idea.

[John Leonard]

Fully agree - performance pay, nothing like it for focussing the mind.

Passing Leftie:

Of course Labour MP's will have to donate all of their salaries and allowances to keep their bankrupt party alive.

No doubt they will follow the EU's example and carry on even though they will be unable to sign off their accounts. Talk about economic incompetence.

[bluepatriot]

This really is a brilliant idea. Perhaps MPs can be paid more generally according to meeting manifesto commitments.

[Iain]

"Perhaps MPs can be paid more generally according to meeting manifesto commitments."

No, they get elected, and paid by the State to implement their manifesto promises, to pay them when fulfilling their promises, is to pay them twice for doing the job their are elected to do.

[Henry Mayhew - Ukipper speaking truth to toffs]

Most excellent. I am prepared to introduce him to UKIP if he is interested.

A good man.

[Letters From A Tory]

How about performance-related pay for MP's? That'll lower their wage bill overnight.

[Alan S]

MPs should also lose pay/ gain pay if they give/ retrieve powers from the devolved assemblies.

[Lindsay Jenkins]

If 80 per cent of our laws are now written in Brussels then MPs pay should be slashed 80 per cent. Perhaps we could be kind and offer them a few pence extra for putting their mark on each Bill.

Congratulations to Peter Lilley for focussing minds.

[Justin Hinchcliffe]

This is nothing more than a silly stunt. I do like Peter (he once stood in Tottenham!), but this is a gimmick which will fail to get any support from the Tory benches, let alone the opposition.

He could, as one person has already noted, take a pay cut if he truly feels he's doing less work than he used to do. Or he could become a Euro-MP where, presumably, he thinks real power lie.

[Ken Stevens]

What a great idea!!

... and MPs elected in Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland should get even less than those of England, as some of their workload also disappeared in the other direction with devolution.

[Patsy Sergeant]

A brilliant idea and I agree with everyone else's comments, except of course Justin Hinchcliffe's! Nitpicking - at the moment.

[Anthony Osborne]

As 80% of our laws and regulations come from the EU, the pay of everyone at Westminster should be slashed by 80%. Les work and less responsibility should equal less pay.

[Paul]

Excellent! I'm all for performance related pay for MPs, with their constituents being given a say in how much they'll get.

More to the point, I wonder when we'll be getting our promised EU referendum?

[RichardJ]

The problem is that MPs just spend their time making more laws where the UK does still have jurisdiction.

[Tim Montgomerie]

Justin: The real power doesn't lie with MEPs but with the Council of Ministers, the bureaucrats of the Commission and, most significantly, with the whole doctrine of Ever Closer Union.

[Justin Hinchcliffe]

The Commission, as you know perfectly well, is able to sack the Commission. The Commissioners are appointed by elected national governments. Don't underestimate the powers MEPs have, and often use to benefit EU citizens.

[Justin Hinchcliffe]

Opps, should be MEPs can sack teh Commission...

[Duncan]

To get back to the subject (MP's pay based on performance)what is Justin Hinchcliffe's problems with it? Saying it is a stunt does not make it so. Millions of govt empoyees are subject to performance pay schemes.Sauce for gooseis sauce for gander. If it gets no support from MPs then shame on them. His comments merely reinforce the justified cynicism of millions of (non) voters concerning the integrity of politicians.

[Justin Hinchcliffe]

Performance-related pay is different to taking a pay cut because certain MPs perceive Europe as taking more powers from Westminster. They are two different issues

[David Parker]

Tim,
The real power,apart from the Commission itself, lies with the European Council (comprising the Heads of State of the member countries) rather than the Council of Ministers, the composition of which varies according to the matters under discussion.
Justin Hinchcliffe,
MEPs can only sack The Commission in its entirety, they have no power over individual Commissioners, however flagrant their misdeeds. Upon the one occasion when they did sack the entire Commission nobody was prosecuted or penalised and the majority of the members were reappointed almost at once. Some democracy!

[Justin Hinchcliffe]

David, this is something that needs to change. I know that there are many MEPs from across the political divide who are would rather remove a commissioner rather than the whole Commission.

[Terry Stokes]

Well said. Peter Lilley for Prime Minister. An MP telling it like it is.

It's not only that 70 - 80% of their work is now done by Brussels but the fact that they now want a 40% pay rise.

Off message but: has every one got their letter ready to post to HM for when our so called representatives approve the Lisbon Con?

[Edward Huxley]

A brilliant idea. No doubt it won`t be adopted but it has sown the seed.

[Frank McGarry]

Why do people keep 'banging on about Europe'? The loss of our democracy and of our self-government are hardly worth worrying about.

Of course our MPs are becoming redundant - but the Palace of Westminster will make a wonderful Democracy Museum one day.

[Arthur Barker]

Surely the answer to this is to leave the EU and regain sovereignty. We have got rid foreign powers before - the Pope and the Roman Catholic church and resisted the spread of communism now we have to get rid of the latest attempt to destroy Britain along with the faint hearts who think we can't do without it. If the EU threatens to cut off trade then we'll go elsewhere - there is a whole new world to be conquered in the developing Far East and Africa and other parts of the globe.

[Richard North]

Nice to see him catching up...

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2008/03/cut-their-pay.html

[Ross Warren]

£100,000 isn't that much in this day and age.
Perhaps if it was we would attract the kind of MP's that the nation really needs. Personally I don't think the currant lot are earning their pay as it is for the most part. Its not like they are the main power brokers anyway.They have been reduced to petty power and as a result the legislation has become petty. With Europe being the more important institution , I would think the pay rises should go there. I would expect the Party to vote against such a large rise.
If Labour MP's want more money they should learn to earn it like the rest of us.

[Paul Marks]

As about 80% of all new laws (mostly statutory instruments drafted by civil servants) are already in response to orders from the European Union, the wages of MPs should be reduced by 80% NOW.

Members of Parliament should be told that their wages will be restored when, and if, they take these powers back from the European Union.

Of course if Paliament ratifies the European Union Constitution (the so called "Treaty of Lisbon"), with its clause allowing the Constitution to be amended in any way without further ratification by national parliaments, then M.P.s wages should be reduced by 100% - as Parliament will no longer have any real function.

[David Graves-Moore]

Several of your correspondents have hit the nail on the head: MPs have given away most of Britain's independence, so why should they be paid as though they were the true guardiancs of our liberty?
The answer is to leave the E.U. at once. We gain nothing whatever from our membership. Once we are independent again then MPs will be worth their £100,00 a year.
As a temporary measure they could have their pay reduced in proportion to their reduced responsibilities. That would concentrate a few minds.

[passing leftie]

Hooray! This is the Tory party we know and love - louder, louder!