MPs have their snouts in the trough while we can’t pay the bills

Nigel Farage set to get a pay rise for all his hard work (Pic: Wikipedia commons)

MPs will get an inflation-busting 5 percent pay rise next month. This takes their annual salary up to £98,5999. 

And it’s expected to hit £110,000 by the end of this parliament.

According to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), MPs deserve a pay rise because “abuse and intimidation towards MPs and their staff has been growing”. They also cite the “higher levels of complex casework” they deal with. 

This is all while workers are getting below inflation pay offers every year.

Ebony is a London Underground worker, in October 2025 they were offered a below inflation pay uplift by Transport for London (TfL).

Ebony told Socialist Worker, “As somebody who has worked for TfL for almost 17 years, I have to negotiate every single year through my union to get a wage to cover even my basic cost of living.

“The fact that MPs just get it awarded to them, with no negotiation, with no one questioning it—the more I think about it the more disgusted I get.

“There should be an automatic, decent living wage for workers—in the NHS, cleaners, train drivers, hospitality workers. The country relies on these workers. 

“Why should we have to negotiate every year, when we do essential work?”

Shaun works for the Department for Work and Pensions and is a rep in the PCS union. The union recently balloted for strikes over an insulting below inflation pay offer, but didn’t meet the turnout threshold set by anti-trade union laws.

Shaun told Socialist Worker, “MPs give themselves a pay rise, to take their pay to nearly a £100,000 a year. Thousands of PCS members are claiming Universal credit just to survive and pay bills.

“Workers have had year on year pay cuts while billions are spent on wars and attacking migrants.”

Ebony says that “MPs do not deserve this”.

“Yes they work hard, yes it’s a difficult job. But I don’t think they work as hard as the lowest paid workers in Britain who are being left behind”, she said.

She pointed out that “Most of these people have second houses, they get reimbursed for their accommodation, their travel, their office costs.”

A number of MPs are millionaires. Tory MP for Torridge and Tavistock Geoffrey Cox raked in £686,000 extra earnings between June 2024 and May 2025. Most of it was for 190 hours of work as a barrister. 

Jas Athwal is Labour MP for South Ilford, in the London borough of Redbridge. One in three people in Redbridge live in poverty. But Athwal is a landlord, owning 15 residential and three commercial properties which brought him an estimated £180,000 in ten months.

But by far the biggest money grabber is Reform UK’s Nigel Farage. The far right MP combines representing the people of Clacton with at least nine jobs including as a GB News presenter. He rakes in close to £1 million per year.

Prime minister Keir Starmer promised to reduce the cost of living. But while ordinary people face a cost of living crisis, MPs are lining their pockets.

Shaun said, “Trade union leaders need to be clear on demands for workers’ pay. They should campaign, organise and fight for that pay that allows workers to have a decent living–not just survive.”