Plans to hike MPs’ pay by inflation-busting 4.1 per cent dropped to ‘reflect reality’ of Covid

Salaries frozen next year, after backlash over proposed £3,000 rise to more than £85,000

Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer - and numerous MPs - said the increase could not be justified  (PA)

Plans to hike MPs’ pay by an inflation-busting 4.1 per cent have been dropped after triggering a public outcry.

Salaries will instead be frozen, an independent watchdog has announced – to “reflect the reality” their constituents are facing, amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Such a rise "would result in a salary increase for MPs that would be inconsistent with the wider economic data and would not reflect the reality that many constituents are facing this year,” it said.

The 4.1 per cent hike being considered would have handed MPs an extra £3,000 next year, taking their pay from £81,932 to more than £85,000.

It was proposed by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), under a formula to link salaries to wider public sector pay without the embarrassment of a vote in the Commons.

Both Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer had said any increase could not be justified and a group of 50 Conservative MPs had urged IPSA to ditch any such plans.

But Rishi Sunak, has since announced a controversial pay freeze for around two million public-sector workers, exempting only NHS workers and the lowest paid.

In a letter, Richard Lloyd, the body’s interim chair, said it was always intended that any “significant change in public sector pay awards this year would be reflected in MPs’ pay”.

“The unprecedented impact of the Covid pandemic has had an unexpected, but different, effect on public and private sector earnings,” he wrote.

“The IPSA Board has therefore decided that the salary for Members of Parliament will remain unchanged for the financial year 2021/22.”

Catherine West, a Labour MP in London, said: “MPs' pay and expenses watchdog has made the right call to freeze MP pay.

“Anything else would have been an insult to public sector workers who are in the same boat.”

Mr Lloyd also said Ipsa would take on board suggestions for alternative approaches to adjusting pay in the future, amid the growing furore over the process, without saying what they are.

“The IPSA Board will be reflecting on these suggestions and will publish its response to the consultation next year,” he added.