Political Salaries: The Unsung Crisis of British Politics?

British Politics needs more money. Don’t worry, I sense your forthcoming scepticism. It was my instinctive reaction too when this radical theory was shared with me recently. Admittedly the proponents maintained a vested interest, being ministerial staffers speaking to me at a Westminster conference. Yet upon reflection, the idea appeared increasingly logical. This article explores why.

At times it can feel like Westminster is brimming with wealth, perhaps due to eye-catching media reports . In January 2023, Sky News published the

‘Westminster Accounts, an impressively interactive dashboard tool announcing that MPs had heinously collected £17.1 million since the 2019 election.

Yet the tool paints an inaccurate picture which fails to differentiate between donations, gifts and earnings and crucially, never states what the money is used for. For example, Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss all registered more than half a million pounds each simply because they have run significant leadership campaigns. In the same vein, the majority of Ben Bradley’s ‘income’ came from free tickets to local football matches, whilst Wes Streeting used his donations to pay for extra office staff.

The Westminster Accounts also list Theresa May as the largest earner, having received just shy of £3m since 2019. Although not an insignificant income, it is not the scandal of exuberance that was implied in headlines, that our former Prime Minister earnt just shy of a million pounds a year.

Away from elected political roles, conditions are even grimmer. A few months ago, Labour hired a new head of economic policy, someone who will play a pivotal role in determining economic policy for the party which is favourites to be leading the next government. The salary on offer: £50,000. In think-tank land, the situation is not much better and poor pay is almost universal. Junior researchers are often expected to crunch numbers as efficiently and accurately as bankers, whilst accepting a salary around £30,000. Unsurprisingly, hiring often proves difficult.

Moreover, aspiring lawyers are likely to have keenly followed the recent pay war between city law firms. The result is that even newly qualified solicitors’ salaries dwarf the annual base salary of an MP, which sits at £86,584. When MPs’ salaries were first introduced, they totalled six times the average wage; now it is just over double.

It is becoming clear that the opportunity cost of a career in politics is huge for the most able. Relying on public spiritedness alone to guide people into politics is, I contend, foolish. Frankly, if you insist that public wages are kept down, whilst private sector ones soar away, the inevitable result will be a drain of people, talent and ideas from state to industry.

My worry is that in the near future, a political career will only appeal to a select few. The lack of money could leave much of politics the preserve of those who are rich, mad, or saintly. Good governance thrives on a steady flow of innovative ideas, but these are challenging to generate when pay is substandard. An increase in funding across the board, although not a panacea, could go a long way to solving that.

by Fraz Ahmad