Main party MEPs will take £10,000 pay rise

Published on Saturday 23 May 2009 18:59

LABOUR, Conservative and LibDem candidates hoping to become Scotland's MEPs will accept an immediate £10,000 pay rise if they are elected to Brussels next week.

The huge increase will take their salaries to more than 73,000 – 25 per cent higher than their MSP colleagues in Edinburgh.

Their stance contrasts with the two SNP candidates who will stick with the present pay salary of 63,291, and turn down the pay rise

However the candidates from the three other parties last night criticised the SNP candidates, claiming their own wages could easily soon fall if the euro suddenly collapsed.

The sudden rise in pay is almost entirely due to the strength of the euro. MEPs voted in 2005 to be paid a new standardised rate of ?91,980. At the time, the new regime meant that British MEPs would see their salaries drop, but with the euro now riding high, once the salary is converted into sterling they will get a new bumper wage packet of around 73,500.

The two SNP candidates – Ian Hudghton and Alyn Smith – last night said they would stick by the old system, insisting that to take such a huge pay rise in the current climate would be wrong.

"As families across Scotland struggle to make ends meet, a pay rise for MEPs seems inappropriate. If re-elected, both SNP MEPs intend to opt out of new salary arrangements," said a spokeswoman.

But the candidates who plan to take the rise last night defended their decision.

Tory MEP Struan Stevenson said: "When we signed up to the new pay deal we were in effect taking a pay cut because the pound was so strong. However as a result of Gordon Brown's disastrous handling of the economy the pound has weakened and we are going to get a pay rise."

Stevenson added that he had voluntarily published all his expenses and receipts on line. "We are the only party to do this," he said.

A spokesman for the Labour party said that both their two candidates, Catherine Stihler and David Martin would be taking home the extra pay.

He said: "When this was adopted it meant a pay cut for UK MEPs. Since then the exchange rate movement means that, in terms of pounds, it has risen – though this will clearly swing back again.

"The SNP excel at shallow gestures, but most Scots are cannier than that and will see through this attempt by the two SNP representatives to keep their perks after others have cleaned up."

A LibDem spokesman said "MEPs pay is like a bouncing ball between walls of the euro and the US dollar, sometimes it will go up, sometimes it will go down."