MPs Inflation-busting Pay Rise

Mar 3
3 min read

Daniel Martin

March 3, 2026

MPs will receive an inflation-busting 5 per cent pay increase because of “abuse and intimidation” and rising case work, the expenses watchdog has said.

Their £93,904 annual salary will increase to £98,599 from April and reach £110,000 by the end of the decade.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) said the pay rise reflected increases in constituency case work and the abuse MPs received on the job. The watchdog said it would also bring Westminster in line with the salaries of many other democracies.

The watchdog was set up in 2009, in the wake of the expenses scandal, to regulate MPs’ pay and business costs.

But Ipsa’s decision is likely to anger frontline public sector workers such as nurses, many of whom face abuse at work, who will gain pay rises of 3.3 per cent in 2026-2027. The TaxPayers’ Alliance branded the increase for MPs a reward for failure.

A survey published last year found that 96 per cent of MPs had faced abuse and intimidation, with half saying it made them feel anxious and unsafe.

Richard Lloyd, the chairman of Ipsa, said: “The role of an MP has evolved. They are dealing with higher levels of complex casework, and abuse and intimidation towards MPs and their staff has been growing.

“In reaching our decision for 2026/27 we have benchmarked MPs’ pay against other responsible, senior roles in civic society and similar worldwide democracies, as well as considering our own core principles and the wider economic context.

“In future years we will continue to consider prevailing economic and fiscal conditions when confirming annual pay decisions, taking into account the experience of people outside of parliament.”

‘Taxpayers will be seething’

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be seething to see politicians receive an inflation-busting pay rise, all while they suffer a personal recession.

“After years of broken promises, falling living standards and deteriorating public services, MPs are being rewarded for failure with a princely pay boost.

“Politicians should not be insulated from the consequences of their own actions. Their pay should be linked to real living standards measured by GDP per capita.”

In April’s increase, 3.5 per cent of it covers cost of living increases, while 1.5 per cent is a “benchmarking adjustment”, following a comparison of Westminster salaries with “roles in the wider public sector and parliamentarians in similar democracies around the world”.

The watchdog looked at pay for senior figures in the public sector, where it found the average senior manager earned £86,828 and a director was on £128,173.

Ipsa said a police superintendent earned between £103,797 and £115,785, an NHS consultant between £106,424 and £160,951, and a British Army colonel between £111,854 and £122,849.

It also said that Parliamentarians in many other democracies earned more than those in the UK.

In the US, senators and members of the House of Representatives earn £128,673.

Parliamentarians in Germany, Australia and Canada earn £122,902, £118,994 and £112,705 respectively while MPs in Italy and Ireland earn more than £100,000. However, Ipsa found that MPs in France, New Zealand and Japan earned between £73,401 and £79,322 and those in India earned just £12,209 a year.

In a document outlining the change, the quango said: “For our pay decision for 2026/27, Ipsa consulted citizens and experts directly and considered a range of metrics, including statistics on pay and reward in the public sector, our own core principles, and the wider economic context.

“We have benchmarked MPs’ pay against the nearest comparable roles in the UK, and the pay of nationally elected politicians in other countries.

“Our analysis suggests MPs should receive a salary of around £110,000 by the scheduled end of the current parliament, and it is our intention to move towards this figure in increments over the next three years.”

It added: “As a first step we have applied a 1.5 per cent benchmarking adjustment to an MP’s salary, alongside a 3.5 per cent cost-of-living uplift, in line with changes to MPs’ staff salaries for 2026/27.

“We will then consider prevailing economic and fiscal conditions when confirming our future annual pay decisions for MPs, taking into account the experience of people outside of Parliament.”

Image - House of Commons/PA

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