Responding to the news that IPSA, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, are launching a consultation on a significant increase in MPs' pay and again calling for an above-inflation increase, Jonathan Isaby, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said:
"It beggars belief that this overgrown quango is launching yet another consultation when the public's view is abundantly clear.
"It's apparent that IPSA is hopelessly out of touch and not fit for purpose. The national debt is still rising and hard-pressed taxpayers are keeping their belts tight, so it's totally inappropriate for these bureaucrats to recommend even higher pay for MPs. IPSA has already spent £70,000 on a consultation which showed the public believed the current pay level to be broadly fair, yet seems insistent on ignoring the findings. MPs cannot be divorced from the same pay restraint as we're seeing everywhere else in the public sector."
IPSA spent £70,000 on a ComRes survey of public attitudes towards MPs' pay in July 2012. This public consultation delivered the public's verdict that the current salary was "fair". Further details of the consultation and payment can be found here.