Schedule

Part of Members' and Ministers' Pay and Allowances – in the House of Commons at 10:20 pm on 19 July 1983.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr John McWilliam Mr John McWilliam , Blaydon 10:20, 19 July 1983

That sounds distinctly unhopeful. I trust that hon. Members will draw their own conclusions from that.

It is important that we get the secretarial allowance quickly on a proper footing. It is unfair to the many dedicated people who work in the most appalling accommodation. Before I came here I was a trade union representative, and, as one here, I would have complained bitterly and effectively about it. It is vital that we at least give the secretaries proper recompense for the work that they do. It is equally vital that we recognise that the work of an hon. Member is becoming more detailed and complex. Particularly with our role in the new departmental Select Committees and with the amount of proposed detailed legislation. All hon. Members need the right to employ at least half a research assistant.

If hon. Members felt inclined to support amendment (b) even in its amended form, if the amendment of the right hon. Member for Stafford is carried, they will have to make up their minds about what they will do in 1988 because they will then be faced with exactly the same problem that is facing us now. Through phasing we have lost so much ground that it has become politically difficult for the Government to recommend the catching up to which we are entitled but have not had.

It will be equally impossible for any Government in 1988 to recommend the catching up which will be needed then. I give one more warning. Whether or not hon. Members accept the principle of linkage, we shall have to have another report. Having studied that report which will be subjective, and all the previous ones, which were objective, as the Leader of the House said, a greater increase will be recommended than would then seem reasonable in percentage terms.

The only way to avoid the embarrassment of having to debate this year after year is to accept the Plowden report — amendments (ee) and (s)—to grasp the nettle and accept the point about linkage made by the Select Committee on Members' Salaries. If we do not, we shall continue to have these debates and have scorn poured upon us by people who should know better, whose salaries are vastly greater than ours and whose responsibilities—at least as far as one can determine from what they write in their newspapers—vastly less.

I invite hon. Members to be courageous just this once to get us out of the nasty hole into which we keep digging ourselves.