Brown orders pay freeze for government ministers

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday all government ministers would forego a pay rise in 2009-2010 after MPs were awarded an annual wage increase of 2.33 per cent.

"Last year and this year, ministers will have no pay rise at all. Pay has been frozen, that is the right thing to do when people are suffering in the economy," he told a Downing Street press conference.

"I made that decision myself and all ministers have supported that decision," he told reporters.

Downing Street clarified that the pay freeze would cover ministerial wages and pay related to being an MP.

A spokesman said the decision would apply right down to junior ministers. She said Mr Brown had ordered the freeze to demonstrate restraint in tough times.

Earlier the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) confirmed that MPs are to receive a pay rise of 2.33 per cent from April 1.

The rise brings their annual salary, before allowances, to about £64,766, British media reported.

The Westminster salary rise comes at a time when many British workers are facing pay freezes or even a cut in pay in the wake of a deepening economic recession.

It also comes days after figures revealed that inflation, judged by the Retail Prices Index (RPI), jumped to 3.2 per cent in February this year. The government's favoured Consumer Prices Index (CPI) fell to zero in the same month.

The chairman of the SSRB Bill Cockburn wrote to House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin last Friday to say the rise had been set at the average received by 15 different groups of public sector workers.

They range from senior military officers, NHS staff, school teachers, prison officers and judges.

MPs' pay is topped up by expenses and allowances worth up to around £180,000 a year to pay for their offices, staff and travel and the cost of spending time away from home while working at Westminster.

Ministers also receive pay on top of their MPs' salary to cover their work as government members.

MPs' expenses have been in the headlines after Home Secretary Jacqui Smith came under fire again over her parliamentary allowances - this time for a claim relating to adult films viewed by her husband.

Parliament's sleaze watchdog is already looking into Mrs Smith's claims for £116,000 to pay for accommodation in London when she was staying with her sister.

Mrs Smith says she followed Parliament's rules and has done nothing wrong.