Outrage Erupts as MPs Snag £2,558 Pay Rise While Rachel Reeves Slashes Spending!

MPs are set to pocket a tidy £2,558 pay bump from April, just as Chancellor Rachel Reeves gears up to announce deep spending cuts that could see tens of thousands of civil service jobs disappear. The rise, confirmed by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), will bring MPs’ annual salary to £93,904 and comes at a time when ordinary households are already feeling the squeeze.

The timing of the increase has raised eyebrows, especially as Reeves prepares to lay out plans in the Spring Statement to reduce civil service numbers by 10,000. She told Sky News on Sunday that she was “confident” the reductions were possible. But that came hot on the heels of a move by Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall, who revealed plans to tighten rules around Personal Independence Payments—a decision that’s expected to hit the disabled and long-term sick hardest.

At the same time, departments are bracing for further belt-tightening, with the Cabinet Office expected to instruct them to slash 15% off their administrative budgets—saving £2.2 billion annually by 2029-30, reported the Express.

Critics haven’t held back. John O’Connell from the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “Taxpayers will be frustrated that while their own income is squeezed, MPs will face no such hardship. Despite overseeing a soaring tax burden and crumbling public services, Britain’s politicians are once again being rewarded despite their litany of failures.”

Fran Heathcote from the Public and Commercial Services union warned that cuts would inevitably hit frontline services. “The impact of making cuts will not only disadvantage our members but the public we serve and the services they rely on,” she said.

Dave Penman of the FDA union estimated the potential fallout, telling ITV: “The Civil Service is about half a million staff. So that could be up to 50,000 staff who would go.”

Meanwhile, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander insisted there were no hard targets on staff cuts—only that administrative costs must fall by 15% over five years. But Mike Clancy from Prospect stressed the Government needed to be “realistic” about what the civil service can actually do after such cuts. “Public servants in both ‘back office’ and ‘frontline’ roles will both be critical,” he said.

Sir Keir Starmer has hinted that police forces could also be affected, though pledged to protect neighborhood policing. And while Reeves faced internal backlash over welfare cuts and slashing the aid budget, she pushed back, telling the BBC: “That is a far cry from what we’ve seen under Conservative governments in the last 14 years.”