Cameron plans to cut ministers’ pay

Poor old Alan Duncan might have to survive on emergency rations. The Guardian reports that David Cameron is planning to cut ministerial pay if the Tories win the next election. Here are the details:

‘David Cameron is planning to make his ministers take significant salary cuts if he forms the next government, senior sources have told the Guardian. The Conservative party high command have calculated that if they are to push through cuts in public services, their politicians have to show they are prepared to “take a financial hit”. A pay cut would also help the party as it attempts to renegotiate public sector pay deals. One senior Tory said a cut as high as 25% was being discussed, which would cost figures such as William Hague and George Osborne nearly £20,000 a year.’

As part of his ‘Age of Austerity’ agenda, David Cameron has pledged to make politics cheaper and it is important that a gesture is made to prove that the Tories ‘get it’, which in turn will ease renegotiating public sector pay to redress the budget deficit. The ruse will encourage voters to reconnect with politics, and, as Andrew Lansley put it on the Today programme this morning, it is a further indication that the Tories are “ready to take responsibility to govern”.

The Tories have been one step ahead in their response to the expenses scandal. Cameron has been ruthless with his backbenchers and, if this pay cut is enacted, will be equally so with his frontbenchers. But, the expenses scandal created the opportunity to introduce extensive reform. Though Cameron’s initiatives are welcome, they do not resemble a grand scheme of reform as yet.

According to Andrew Lansley, this latest initiative was not discussed by the Shadow Cabinet, adding more weight to the suggestion that Cameron marginalises many senior MPs. It also places Shadow Cabinet ministers, who are not as rich Cameron and Osborne, under financial pressure; the Guardian reports one source saying: ‘David’s plans for after the election have changed that and some of us are wondering whether we can still afford to be in politics.’ Sadly, Alan Duncan is multi-millionaire.