A PROPOSED 11 per cent pay rise for MPs has been met with a mixed reaction from Bury’s two Parliamentary representatives.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Committee (IPSA) has recommended a rise of £7,600, to £74,000 a year, after the 2015 general election.

A report was due to be delivered today, which recommends the rise as part of a package of changes to the salary and benefits of MPs.

Ipsa says that the pay rise is needed to ensure MPs’ wages match those in the public sector.

Bury South MP Ivan Lewis said such a pay hike would be inappropriate at a time of pay freezes across much of the public sector.

He said: “At a time when the vast majority of people are experiencing a pay freeze or minimum increases, it is wrong for MPs to be awarded such a hike in their salaries.

“IPSA should think again or, as Ed Miliband has proposed, the parties should come together and make it clear that these proposals are not acceptable."

Currently MPs earn £66,396 a year, and their salary, determined by IPSA, has been frozen since 2010.

Bury North MP David Nuttall said decisions on pay and benefits was the right way of going about setting MPs’ salaries, and that members should abide by IPSA’s decisions.

He said: “Now there is an independent regulator, MPs including me, must abide by their decisions, some we might like some we might not.

“If our pensions contributions are being increased and other benefits cut at the same time it would be strange if MPs accepted some of the changes but not all of them.

“I think it is right that MPs should be treated in the same way as others in the public sector but the public do not want to see MPs setting their own pay and conditions.”