Governance 19h 37m left
Should MPs get a pay rise if they are banned from having second jobs?
An MP's basic salary is £98,599 from April 2026, set independently by IPSA after a 5% rise. IPSA has said benchmarking points to around £110,000 by the end of this Parliament. MPs may currently hold paid second jobs, though paid parliamentary advice and consultancy are banned. The government said in February 2026 that it backs banning second jobs with narrow exceptions, and the Committee on Standards is reviewing the rules.
16 Opinions
Second jobs shouldn’t be banned, but full openness on the who they’re working for and what they are going to be paid should be compulsory so the electorate fully understands the situation whilst voting.
You stood for election and became an MP, that is your job and should be your only job.
No, but I'm sure they will vote for one anyway given the chance
What about giving them a free travel pass for trains, buses and taxis, instead of a pay rise.? That yearly income is large!
HMRC classes £200k as wealthy. If their income is capped to only one job, they shouldn't be limited to only ½ of this otherwise it will further deter the skills that we are lacking in the current government Edited
When the average local council CEO is paid substantially more than the PM, it's clear there's an issue. When head teachers are paid more than an MP, it's hardly surprising that the majority of MPs are pretty poor calibre. Most of them simply wouldn't cut it in the private sector. A private sector comparison would probably be closer to £200k. As long as we pay peanuts we will get monkeys. If second jobs are barred, the calibre will fall even further.
The MP salary was introduced to level the playing field so "working class" people could enter politics, along with the self-funding elites who ran the show back in the day. When you consider the responsibility and the long hours, I think it should be a well paid job equivalent to being CEO of a company. I don't mind the "perks" either. I want them comfortable, stress free (insofar as that's possible) and focused on delivering high quality policies for the greater good.
Higher pay for MPs will attract bigger, better and much brighter candidates to politics. We need to give a reason for the big fish in business and industries to move over to politics. What i would like to see is a performance based pay scheme, with an extremely high cap. That would drive politicians to actually do their jobs! MP's expenses need to be seriously scrutinised as well.
There should be no ban on second jobs,. The question only arises as so many in government (and its MPs) are unemployable in private enterprises.
They don’t really need it, they get enough in perks n freebies on top of the basic … and if they don’t end up with at least 2 top of the range residences, that they flip flopped back and forth for ‘improvements’ … and ONE OF THEM IN LONDON !!