Police officers under pay freeze react with mixture of astonishment and anger to the 2.7% MP pay rise

2 March 2022

Police officers – subject to a brutal Government pay freeze since 2020 – have reacted with a mixture of astonishment and anger to the news that MPs are being granted a 2.7% pay rise.

All MPs will get a £2,212 pay hike on 1 April, seeing an MP's basic salary go up to £84,144 a year.

Over the past 10 years due to ‘austerity’ based pay freezes and subsequent below inflation pay rises, police officer pay has fallen in real terms by 20% behind the cost of living.

Unlike nurses and firefighters, police officers were given no pay rise in 2021 with the public cost of the Covid-19 pandemic blamed by the Treasury.

Now household bills are rising sharply and National Insurance is going up in April – the same week MPs will receive their rise.

Officers have reacted to the news with fury – especially as the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, which sets MP salaries, said the politicians should be paid fairly for the responsibilities they carried, which ‘dramatically increased’ during the pandemic.

Daren Egan, Chair of Sussex Police Federation, said: “Police officers will need a strong stomach reading that an independent pay review body are arguing that MP’s are paid ‘fairly’ with a 2.7% pay increase due to their duties increasing last year.

“Long forgotten are the sacrifices made by police officers across the country who were policing the pandemic - what I would like to know is how many MPs are homeless, sofa surfing or relying on food banks… we sadly now have police officers who are.

“We need to remind the public that Police officers are the only front line emergency workers currently on a pay freeze. In 2021, both Firefighters and the NHS both received pay increases.

“Police officers continue to be treated like something on the bottom of the Government’s shoe - the fact that Police officers are the only emergency services workers that do not have any industrial rights or any way to stand up for themselves is no coincidence.”

In May 2021 the Police Federation withdrew from the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) after recommendations from the body were once again disregarded by the Government, seeing officers with no uplift in pay despite the efforts and challenges faced during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Daren added: “The message from MPs is clear: ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ Which clearly evidences why the Police Federation have been arguing so hard for an independent pay review structure. MPs wouldn’t accept anything like the current Police Renumeration Review Body deciding their pay, if they did they wouldn’t get anything.

“Police officers will continue to demand to have an independent pay review body - just like MP’s have, so we get appropriate pay increases just like they have and are treated with respect just like they have been.”