North Dorset MP donates pay rise to charities

In a statement on 8 March, Robert Walter MP (North Dorset) announced that he will donate the full value of his 1.5% pay rise to two local hospital charities in his constituency.  Members of Parliament have been awarded a pay rise by the independent Senior Salaries Review Board starting in April of just under £1,000 per annum.

Bob Walter has said: “When we are asking for pay restraint and freezes for senior public servants it would not be appropriate to take this pay rise at this time. I have always made the case that MPs pay should not be decided by politicians. This pay rise has been determined independently in line with salaries in the public sector, but I believe we should set an example to public servants at a time of pay restraint.

“The SSRB chairman Bill Cockburn wrote to Commons Speaker John Bercow at the end of February to inform him of the rise. The review body calculates MPs' pay based on the median increases given to fifteen other groups of public sector workers. Doctors and dentists, NHS managers, the judiciary and the senior civil service have all been given increases of 1.5 per cent for the next financial year.

“Local National Health Service hospitals are already feeling the effects of public spending cuts and I feel I should make a small but symbolic contribution to our local NHS services. I have the greatest admiration for and have supported, in the past, the ‘friends’ charities in both Blandford and Shaftesbury. I will donate the full value of my pay rise divided equally between Friends of Blandford Community Hospital and Westminster Memorial Hospital League of Friends.”