MPs vote themselves a rise

MPs are now paid over £50,000 a year

MPs have voted to give themselves an extra £4,000 on top of their existing £49,822 salaries.

They also voted to increase annual allowances to fund staff and offices to £60,000 a year - or £70,000 for MPs representing London constituencies.

MPs' pay

MPs currently earn £49,822 a year

They have voted themselves an extra £4,000 over two years

MPs will get £60,000 to pay for offices and staff away from the Commons

London MPs will get £70,000

Cabinet ministers earn £118,000 on top of their MP's salary

Prime Minister Tony Blair earns an extra £163,000

Ministerial salaries were increased immediately after the election

Under the pay proposals - which MPs backed by an overwhelming majority - the £4,000 rise will come over two years.

Introducing the proposals, Leader of the House Robin Cook said he believed MPs should not sell themselves short.

"I do not think we impress the public if we set too low a value on our own worth," he said.

"If we believe our work here is important we should not shrink from putting a proper value on it."

The package is based on proposals from the independent Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) which was appointed to look into members' pay, allowances and pensions.

Mr Cook said the SSRB recommendations were based on restoring parity with other public sector posts.

What MPs earn should be comparable to the salaries of secondary head teachers or police chief superintendents, Mr Cook argued.

Pay rise creates 'cynicism'

But Labour MP Chris Mullin, who resigned from the government so he could speak freely from the backbenches, said the pay rise would contribute to a "cynicism lapping at the foundations of the democratic process".

"I came to this place to do what I believe to be right, not to bask in the warm glow of approbation from my colleagues, pleasant though that is," he said.

"I do not believe that there is any justification for awarding ourselves an extra £4,000 over the next two years ... nor do I think we should be in the invidious position of having to vote on our own pay."

Mr Mullin argued that MPs' pay should rise in line with average increases in the public sector - an amount that last year would have been around 3.7%.

"Every time we do something like this it adds to the great ocean of cynicism lapping at the foundations of the democratic process," he said.

Concern over staff

Shadow leader of the house Angela Browning expressed concern that the SSRB's recommendation that MPs should employ three members of staff would be impossible to carry out under pay structures recommended in the report.

Mrs Browning also expressed concerns over proposals that all MPs should be provided with a standard computer package.

She said that MPs had not been given any choice over which firm would supply the new computer equipment and called for an open debate to be held before any future procurement.