North and north-east MPs have criticised the “ridiculous” and “insensitive” decision to increase MPs’ pay by 10% – despite other public sector wage rises being capped at 1% for another four years.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) confirmed yesterday it was pushing ahead with the increase from £67,060 to £74,000, which will be backdated to May 8.
Many MPs, who cannot refuse the rise, pledged to hand the extra money to charity or local causes, while others argued it was long over due.
Westminster SNP leader and Moray MP Angus Robertson said it was not right for MPs to receive a pay rise in a “time of austerity and huge financial difficulties for far too many people”.
He added: “As Ipsa has gone ahead with these changes, I think it would be right to use the funds to support good causes.”
Former first minister and Gordon MP Alex Salmond also criticised the increase, originally unveiled in 2013, which is tied to cuts in pensions and expenses.
He said: “We are opposing the pay rise. Anything else will be determined once it happens and if it happens.”
He hailed the expenses system at Holyrood where there had been “not one whiff of scandal”, adding: “Instead of producing this convoluted nonsense, Westminster should have followed the Scottish Parliament.”
Mr Salmond said he was committed to giving £50,000 over the next year to charity in the form of his MSP salary and first minister’s pension.
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey MP Drew Hendry said he would continue to give to good causes with the additional money.
He added: “It’s a ridiculous decision in this time. I think the fact we can’t even refuse it is wrong.”
He also said he had given his salary from Highland Council, which he stood down from this week, to good causes since becoming an MP.
Both Aberdeen MPs – Callum McCaig and Kirsty Blackman – also pledged to donate to good causes, while West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine MP Stuart Donaldson said he had always stated he would donate the increase in his pay to charity.
Former Aberdeen City Council leader Mr McCaig said: “I just don’t see how it can be justified at a time when everyone else in the public sector is getting a negligible pay increase.”
Former Scottish secretary Alistair Carmichael said he was disappointed Ipsa had not been “more sensitive to public opinion”.
The Orkney and Shetland MP added: “I have said in the past that I would not want my pay to rise by anything over that which is allowed to other public sector workers.
“I shall therefore look to find a means of using the extra money to contribute towards my parliamentary running costs.”
Ipsa said the issue could no longer be “ducked”, but climbed down on plans to link MPs’ pay to UK-wide average earnings in future – a move which could have left MPs £23,000 better off by 2020.
Instead, they will be restricted to average rises in the public sector.
The extra money will be paid to MPs automatically, but the watchdog operates a payroll giving scheme which allows them to donate to charity from gross salary.
Prime Minister David Cameron previously branded the substantial boost “unacceptable”, but last month Downing Street indicated he would not seek to block the move.
He has imposed a freeze on the ministerial element of pay – meaning he and Cabinet ministers will only get an effective 5% increase in their total remuneration.
According to the Ipsa report, a number of MPs wrote in to support the pay rise, including Foreign Office minister Tobias Ellwood, home affairs committee chairman Keith Vaz and Rory Stewart, Conservative chairman of the defence committee.