The “grim” struggle of living on an MP’s *£81,932 salary* [angry]

Of course there are many people who earn more than £80,000 but that's not the issue.

There's never any shortage of people who stand for Parliament at elections and desperate to be MPs - they know what the salary is, plus the perks and expenses.

If it's not enough don't do it for decades - go off and be paid your true worth!

Dinahmo

JenniferEccles

In this day and age it’s really not a high salary though is it?
Hundreds of thousands of people in all walks of life
earn considerably more as well as CEOs of thousands of companies.
Then of course we get onto the ridiculous sums paid to tv presenters and footballers.

Boris Johnson took a considerable pay cut when he became PM.

Median incomes in 2019/20:

The richest 1/5 £62'400
The poorest 1/5 £13,880
The retired £23,557

It would seem that Peter Bottomley isn't doing too badly.

The retired, on 23,000 , well I wish, as do many others I would guess. Am classed as poor according to this. Think people running the country should be paid more than a TV presenter. Or a footballer for that matter. To think my friends niece gets paid more for working on a check out than another friends husband who is a bus driver. It’s all bum towards face if you ask me.

So should we have governmental control of salaries then?

That sounds a bit left wing.

I wouldn’t have thought his comments went down well with his government, considering they’ve just snatched back the £20 a week UC uplift !! It beggars belief that an MP of any colour would say something so crass at a time when inflation is pushing up prices all over the place and people are struggling because of the effects of the pandemic. Given that MP’s have their fingers in all sorts of pies, the salary is unlikely to be their only source of income anyway. Wish things were so ‘grim’ for the rest of us. The contempt with which they view the British public is breathtaking.

There are plenty of lawyers and doctors who are MPs who must have taken a pay cut - maybe because they are wealthy enough or enjoy the kudos of being an MP. MPs can also earn money on the side writing newspaper columns and giving speeches so I doubt many of them are on the breadline. I think the problem is in attracting the best possible candidates for the job - I don't think the current cabinet represent the finest minds the country has to offer.

CoolCoco

There are plenty of lawyers and doctors who are MPs who must have taken a pay cut - maybe because they are wealthy enough or enjoy the kudos of being an MP. MPs can also earn money on the side writing newspaper columns and giving speeches so I doubt many of them are on the breadline. I think the problem is in attracting the best possible candidates for the job - I don't think the current cabinet represent the finest minds the country has to offer.

It most certainly doesn't!

The problem is that the dossers in safe seats would still have their jobs on the side, but would earn more from their "hobby".

Anybody who makes it to the cabinet has something to put on their CV and won't ever be on the breadline. I'm not convinced that more pay would attract the best minds.

Totally agree with all the points made by Pammie1.
I don't think that any of the MP's of our present government have any idea of how people truly have to manage on so little.
I despair of where this country is heading and can only see things getting worse for people that are vulnerable. I sure no one wants to be on benefits and zero hour contracts.

Well, if any of them are not satisfied with their salary, they should go and find a different job, shouldn't they, instead of moaning about it!

Lincslass

Dinahmo

JenniferEccles

In this day and age it’s really not a high salary though is it?
Hundreds of thousands of people in all walks of life
earn considerably more as well as CEOs of thousands of companies.
Then of course we get onto the ridiculous sums paid to tv presenters and footballers.

Boris Johnson took a considerable pay cut when he became PM.

Median incomes in 2019/20:

The richest 1/5 £62'400
The poorest 1/5 £13,880
The retired £23,557

It would seem that Peter Bottomley isn't doing too badly.

The retired, on 23,000 , well I wish, as do many others I would guess. Am classed as poor according to this. Think people running the country should be paid more than a TV presenter. Or a footballer for that matter. To think my friends niece gets paid more for working on a check out than another friends husband who is a bus driver. It’s all bum towards face if you ask me.

The vast majority of footballers don't get paid the mega-salaries of the elite players.

Yes, grostuff his father, Sir James Bottomly, an army officer, later a diplomat (Kings and then also Trinity), had an international career and was appointed KCMG so obviously Peter B. mixed in the "right" circles.

Not many youths probably got to walk a week with "Sherpa" Tenzing Norgay in their gap between school and uni and teach in a grammar school for 3 weeks as cover for a famous historian/explorer/writer.

Lincslass So why doesn't your friend's husband go and find a job on a check out?

Edwina Currie on the radio yesterday, talking to a caller. Caller said that she needed her car to get to work and get her 3 children to where they needed to be, she was a single mother. Car was getting too expensive with all the other expenses going up.

Edwina's recommendation? Get your employer to provide a car.

Finger on the pulse there, Edwina.

My quibble is not about how much an MP, or any other highly paid person 'earns'. It's the absolute insensitivity (aka slap in the face to people who really are in 'desperate' circumstances) of saying that it's 'grim' and causes 'desperation' to those MPs who have no other source of income than their almost £82k salary.

Does he not understand that his government presides over some of the poorest pensions in the developed world? Does he not know the figures for Universal Credit payments? Has he any idea of how 'grim' it is to have to pay the rent when Local Housing Allowance rates are well below the actual cost of renting homes? Has he no conception of the insult his words are to people struggling to feed themselves and their children, pay increased energy costs, and who don't have the luxury of claiming their 'travel expenses' as he and his colleagues do?

And his timing? Really?

If you 'know' me on Gransnet I trust that you think of me as a generally reasoned and well balanced person, not given to kneejerk reactions or inflammatory comments, but this has driven me to literally despair. I have lost hope.

growstuff The vast majority of footballers don't get paid the mega-salaries of the elite players.
Maybe not but they're on very good wages, even the 3rd and 4th tiers, and they earn far more than their european counterparts.
www.onaverage.co.uk/money-averages/average-premier-league-salary

What is the average salary in other English professional football leagues?
The difference in salary between the Premier League and lower leagues is very big. In the Championship the average salary is between £7,500 and £8,500 a week. The top players in the Championship can earn around £80,000 a week. The average salary in League One is between £1,700 and £2,500, and in League Two it’s between £1,300 and £1,500.

Not exactly peanuts even for the lowest division. Doesn't change the fact that it absolutely can't be a grim struggle on £80,000+ per year.

You are indeed grannyactivist. I always admire your measured posts although we differ politically I can more than understand your annoyance at such a crass statement.

You’re a good egg. Your community is lucky to have you.

"desperation" - "meagre salary" - what planet is he on?

Another thread highlighting the extent to which this government is totally out of touch. How can he say this in the week when £80 a month is being taken from the very poorest?

Makes you sick.

This is his personal info from
The Register of Members' Financial Interests. It includes 3 homes all registered in 2015.

As at 9 November 2020:

6. Land and property portfolio: (i) value over £100,000 and/or (ii) giving rental income of over £10,000 a year

Flat in Worthing: (i). (Registered 04 June 2015)
Cottage in Waverley: (i). (Registered 04 June 2015)
House in Westminster: (i). (Registered 04 June 2015)

7. (i) Shareholdings: over 15% of issued share capital

Grosvenor House (Worthing) Ltd, management of residential property. The company holds the freehold of six flats. (Registered 03 December 2018)

7. (ii) Other shareholdings, valued at more than £70,000
Streetbook Ltd; an internet community communications company. (Updated 4 June 2015

Like others, the issue isn't really his personal wealth (though this is interesting) it's the lack of understanding of others doing "public service" type jobs - and his timing!

Rosie51

growstuff The vast majority of footballers don't get paid the mega-salaries of the elite players.
Maybe not but they're on very good wages, even the 3rd and 4th tiers, and they earn far more than their european counterparts.
www.onaverage.co.uk/money-averages/average-premier-league-salary

What is the average salary in other English professional football leagues?
The difference in salary between the Premier League and lower leagues is very big. In the Championship the average salary is between £7,500 and £8,500 a week. The top players in the Championship can earn around £80,000 a week. The average salary in League One is between £1,700 and £2,500, and in League Two it’s between £1,300 and £1,500.

Not exactly peanuts even for the lowest division. Doesn't change the fact that it absolutely can't be a grim struggle on £80,000+ per year.

the average salary of a Premier League football player is about £50,000 per week. This average is high partially due to (the fact) that some of the top players earn up to £350,000!

And that's only for Premier League players. What about all the other professional players, who play for lower leagues and non-League sides?

As the article points out the "average" is £50,000 because it's distorted by a handful who earn six figure salaries.

I taught a boy who now plays for a Premier League club and I wouldn't mind betting he worked and trained harder during his teenage years than any MP. He's a workhorse, not a mega-star and I doubt if he'll still be playing when he's in his thirties, so I hope he's thought ahead and made plans. Maybe he could be an MP!

Don't care what he was or did 50 years ago!
Making comments like he did means he has completely forgotten about it and at the time, for most of the jobs he did on the list, he would have been paid pretty well for that time. Teacher at Geelong Grammar ? It's a private school, not like the UK form of grammar school! I know for a fact that their pay has never been peanuts!
There is no point in pointing out the wages paid to tv and radio people and sportsmen and women, It's not them that are constantly making crass comments about those that have the lowest income and telling them to "tighten their belts".

maybe he could take on a second job? why he is expecting hand outs off the taxpayer? I've worked hard, I don't want my well earned taxes paying for him to buy an extra bottle of whiskey or two. These folk they are so entitled > I bet he has a massive car as well.

And a huge tv.

It's all sausage rolls and bingo at Bottomley's house

And he will have been spending his money on tattoos I bet.