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18 March 2012updated 26 Sep 2015 8:02pm

What if regional pay rates applied to MPs?

A thought experiment for the Treasury team.

By Helen Lewis

Over at his blog, A View from Ham Common, Richard Morris asks:

Just to double check – these proposals that Public Servants from the poorest parts of the country should earn less than those from richer parts do apply to MPs, don’t they?

Of course it’s just a thought experiment — MPs work in London for most of the week — but still, as @zelostreet points out, it could be interesting to see the MPs for Sheffield Hallam, Tatton, and Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey explain the point to their constituents.

Currently, MPs in London constituencies get an extra £7,500 – which they voted up 157%, from £2,916, in the Commons in July 2008. But there’s no difference in pay to take into account that, say, house prices in Witney, Oxfordshire, average £253,905 while in the Highlands, the average house price is £156,966.

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