Paying the police

Jan 23 2008 by Rob Merrick, Liverpool Daily Post

OUR MPs should pack away their hairshirts and vote themselves a proper pay rise tomorrow – ignoring the inevitable bad headlines.

But, in return, MPs must find a way to trigger a Commons vote that would force Gordon Brown to also give police officers the pay rise they deserve.

Tomorrow, the thumbscrews will be put on MPs on all sides to vote down the 2.56% rise recommended for them by the senior salaries review board.

Yes, that’s right – 2.56%. Not “generous”, or “inflation-busting”, or any of he other false adjectives applied, but well below RPI (4%), used for most pay settlements.

Yet the Prime Minister, and other party leaders, will demand that MPs exercise “discipline” by voting themselves a 1.9% rise.

Or, as it should be called, a pay cut.

Mr Brown needs MPs to get him out of the hole he has dug for himself by forcing the police to settle for 1.9% – in defiance of an independent recommendation.

The Prime Minister says this painful decision is necessary to keep inflation under control, but experts agree that is complete codswallop.

Public sector pay does not drive inflation. It is salaries in the private sector – affecting the price of everything from cars to hair cuts and potatoes – that can hit the inflation rate.

So, let’s not be fooled when Mr Brown says: “Nobody would like to pay the police more than I do, but we must not take risks with inflation . . .”

What he means is: “Nobody would like to pay the police more than I do, but I’ve screwed up the nation’s finances and it will be embarrassing if our bud- get deficit gets even bigger . . .”

MPs, earning £60,675, are not particularly well paid.

Here in London, that salary would be laughed at by many in the private, and public, sectors.

But, in standing up to No.10, MPs should also stand up for police officers, up to 10,000 of whom will protest outside Parliament today, in the so-called “bobby lobby”.

Among the MPs protesting over the staged police pay award are Claire Curtis-Thomas (Crosby), Louise Ellman (Riverside), George Howarth (Knowsley North and Sefton East), Peter Kilfoyle (Walton), Eddie O’Hara (Knowsley South), John Pugh (Southport) and Bob Wareing (West Derby).

They should get their modest pay rise – and ensure the police are next in line.

COMING from Surrey, it is difficult for Chris Grayling – the Tory “shadow minister for Liverpool” – to make an impact, but surely no city MP can match this achievement?

Mr Grayling once faced the terrifying Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee in a charity cricket match – and smashed the ball to the boundary.