Two MPs on Teesside have asked for their pay to be frozen during the coronavirus pandemic.
Matt Vickers and Jacob Young have signed a letter urging the Parliament’s pay watchdog to scrap the 3% pay rise which MPs were set to receive this year.
The letter, written by Bishop Auckland MP Dehenna Davison, asks Richard Lloyd OBE, Interim Chair of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), to freeze MPs pay.
In the letter, she highlighted the work of doctors, nurses, police officers, firefighters, teachers and other essential workers who have "kept people safe, kept our children educated and kept our country running".
She said: "To support people's jobs and livelihoods, the Government has introduced unprecedented measures, totalling £200 billion.
"But at such a time, where the Government may be asking for restraint elsewhere, we believe it is neither appropriate not justifiable to be awarding MPs' pay rises.
"I am pleased that where the Government can take action on pay it has, with Ministerial pay frozen at 2010 levels. However, as you know, decisions on the pay of MPs do not sit with Government, but sit with you.
"Therefore, as the independent body responsible for setting Member of Parliaments' pay, we are calling on you to scrap the 3% pay rise we are set to receive this year and freeze MPs pay.
"When so many of our constituents are facing uncertainty, it is only right that we help shoulder the burden."
Matt Vickers at the University Hospital of North Tees
Matt Vickers, MP for Stockton South, and Redcar MP Jacob Young are among 52 MPs who have signed the letter, including Dehenna Davison.
As it stands, almost 4million public sector workers, including teachers and police, face a pay freeze in April.
The independent watchdog had been planning to raise MPs’ salaries in 2021 in line with this autumn’s public sector wages.
However Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Keir Starmer have said IPSA shouldn’t go ahead with the MPs’ pay rise.
Jacob Young is self isolating
Mr Vickers told Teesside Live: "I just think it's wrong when you see emergency services on the frontline - the nurses, the doctors, the police men.
"It's basically the wrong time for MPs to get a pay rise, I wanted to make that clear.
"I think the Government has limited resources, they need to use them to support small businesses and the health service and protect jobs.
"Every week I speak to businesses that are struggling. I need to support them, I need to be seen to be right behind them.
"I think the Government is dealing with huge challenges. I think the Government is doing well dealing with certain situations.
"To those nurses and doctors on the front line, the retail workers in the shops, the bus drivers, post men, we are all in this together. We should all get our part.
"I just think it's wrong, I think it's the wrong thing to do."
