Bottomley: the Father of the House of Commons doesn’t think MPs earn enough and says they should have as much as GPs. In the interests of “levelling up”, perhaps Boris Johnson should consider making their £100k-a-year the National Living Wage?
What an inconsiderate narcissist Peter Bottomley is!
On the day Universal Credit – the main unemployment benefit but also the subsidy paid to working people to make up for the failure of businesses to pay them a living wage – was cut, plunging 4.4 million people into poverty, he complained that his £82,000 MP’s salary isn’t enough.
Tory MP Peter Bottomley asks for a pay rise because he can't manage on his £82k a year. So insulting & insensitive considering the £20 cut to UC. Who are these people?!
— SueHsy #BDS💙💜Cult member 054- (@Thehopper7) October 7, 2021
He thinks he should get around the same amount as GPs – slightly more than £100,000 a year. Average salary – which is skewed upwards by the top 10 per cent of earners – is £31,000.
Strangely, he admitted that he is not suffering financially himself:
Although he said he currently is not struggling financially, he believes the situation is ‘desperately difficult’ for his newer colleagues.
The representative of Worthing West in West Sussex added: ‘I don’t know how they manage. It’s really grim.’
That didn’t stop people like his former colleague Michael Portillo leaping to support him on TV, with what can only be seen as a false argument:
Conservative MP Sir Peter Bottomley says some MPs are finding it “really grim” to live on a salary of £82,000 and their annual salary should be higher.
Ben points out these comments may not be welcomed especially at a time where the cost of living is increasing dramatically. pic.twitter.com/UwzvKEVSlz
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) October 7, 2021
Portillo was saying it must be hard for older MPs to put up with receiving the same amount as their younger colleagues, when Bottomley was saying it must be harder for younger MPs.
They can’t even get their story straight!
And the comparison with GPs doesn’t work, either, because doctors are paid according to the amount of time they work and MPs aren’t:
An MP gets paid over £6000 a month even if they only work one hour
MPs pay should be paid by the hour like the rest of us.— Jen Wood – est optimum simpliciter (@unojen_wood) October 7, 2021
This Writer doubts it would work if we paid MPs by the hour; it would just give them another opportunity to submit false claims (expenses scandal, anybody?).
Bottomley deserves all the sympathy he received from satirical songwriter Mitch Benn:
Fucking retrain as an HGV driver then https://t.co/t4R8T3wDkc
— Mitch Benn hates to say he told you so 🇬🇧🇪🇺 (@MitchBenn) October 6, 2021
It isn’t impossible – at 77, Bottomley is younger than at least one driver the government is desperate to put back in a cab:
Government is so desperate for HGV drivers it asks 80-year-old to get back behind the wheel https://t.co/kY9KGam4DJ
— Clare Hepworth OBE (@Hepworthclare) October 7, 2021
For most of the rest of us, £82,000 a year is an impossible dream. That’s why Bottomley has received a huge amount of criticism for his selfish words. Here’s one of the milder rebukes.
Hello I would like to experience this grim reality please https://t.co/q6pflKrKW5
— Rosie Holt (@RosieisaHolt) October 6, 2021
Still, Boris Johnson likes to talk about “levelling up” and he’s currently waffling about wages to anybody who can still be bothered to listen.
So, what about it, Boris? The Father of the House thinks wages should rise.
How about accommodating him, and increasing the National Living Wage to £100k all around?
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