How much do MPs earn?

How much do MPs earn?

Oona King (Author and Former Member of Parliament) gives expert video advice on: Who was your boss?; How much do MPs earn?; Do all MPs get the same salary? and more...

When I was selected to be an MP which was in 97, at the beginning of 97, MPs were earning £33,000 a year. That was put up to £45,000, something like that, and then up to £58,000. I think 58,000 pounds a year or I think it might be 56,000 pounds a year. I might have got that wrong an extra 2,000 pounds. I don't think that's a monstrous amount of money when you consider that the head of the local authority earns 120,000 pounds a year, or more quite often. However, it is a lot of money, obviously if you're in an area like I was, and you need to employ extra people out of your salary; it quickly shrinks dramatically. In fact that's exactly what happened with me, and you have to pay for your constituents ,so you don't get everything I imagined. Oh, I'm an MP all my office costs are paid for. I'll tell you that they give you a certain amount, and if you get more letters in, you need to arrange more meetings. Whatever it might be, or you might even just want to put a leaflet out to your constitutes telling them what you're doing, that can cost £10,000 and you've got to take that 10,000 pounds out of your own salary. So, you know if you've spent your office costs allowance, so it does sound like a lot of money. I don't think British MPs are massively overpaid, and I think we are among the worst paid MPs in Europe. The last thing I wanted to say is that I'm not suggesting we should start a save the MP campaign, it's not as bad as that at all, but it's not what a lot of people think, and I was quite shocked that being an MP put me into really serious financial debt, and I had to remortgage my house. I'm not saying stop it, but it's not like you get everything on a plate, it's not like everyone imagines.