News that MPs will be receiving a 1.5% pay rise has angered unions.

The Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) which is responsible for recommending annual pay increases for Members of the House of Commons, has calculated that MPs should receive a 1.5% pay rise from the 1 April, an increase in salary of almost £1,000.

The rise will take the average salary for an MP to £65,737 a year, more than the average GP and Deputy Headteacher wage.

The SSRB calculates the MP’s pay rise based on the median increases given to 15 other groups of public sector workers including army personnel, NHS senior managers, doctors and dentists.

The Taxpayers Alliance (TPA) is outraged by the news and says that individual MPs are already very well paid in the context of UK earnings. According to research by the TPA, MPs are amongst the top 3% in terms of income, earning a weekly pre-tax income of £1,127 in 2008, more than three times the average weekly wage of £388.

However, leading political commentator Iain Dale has defended the rise by arguing that top salaries need to be paid in order to attract top class people “rather than some of the dross we have got at the moment on all sides of the House.”

Dale also makes the point that by electing an independent body to determine the salaries of MPs and such like, the decision they make should be accepted.

Unison the UK’s biggest public sector trade union agreed that the recommendations should be honoured but said that the pay rise could have a damaging effect on morale.

General Secretary, Dave Prentis, said: “It does not seem right that MPs can get a 1.5% pay increase, worth £1,000 a year on a basic pay, when low paid workers such as teaching assistants, school dinner ladies, social care workers, road sweepers will get nothing because their pay is being frozen.”