ISN’T it funny that Leigh MP Andy Burnham’s ‘plan’ to give his £7,600 per year pay rise to charity comes on the run up to the general election, especially as the actual increase was announced nine months ago.

But what he doesn’t say in his press release is that by taking the money in his salary rather than stopping it a source his pension contributions will also increase by a huge amount.

Since MPs pay was put in the hands of ‘IPSA’, MPs no longer have to vote on salary increases.

They will still get their huge pay rise but can now pass the blame on to another organisation.

But when Labour were in power and before IPSA was set up, it was Mr Burnham’s own Labour Party colleague Jack Straw who recommended a £4,000 per year increase for all MPs, and I don’t recall Mr Burnham voting against it or offering to give it to charity back then.

There are 256 Labour MPs, so if they all refused to take the rise it would save the tax payer almost £2 million per year plus more on pension contributions.

There are thousands of people in low-paid jobs who make donations to charity but they never look for publicity, I feel Mr Burnham’s press release is an insult to them and shows how MPs are out of touch with the real world.

Les Leggett,
Atherton