PM: MPs' pay rise 'unacceptable'

Ed Miliband has suggested the public's confidence and trust in the political system will be undermined unless the uncertainty over MPs' pay is resolved.

Mr Miliband has said all three party leaders should meet the head of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority to voice their concerns over the planned 11 per cent pay rise.

Read: Clegg aides: All three leaders oppose 11% MPs' pay rise

Ed Miliband has said all three party leaders should make clear their opposition to the head of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa)'s expected recommendation of an 11 per cent pay rise to MPs tomorrow.

In a letter to David Cameron, the Labour leader wrote: "I believe the three party leaders should meet Sir Ian Kennedy tomorrow to make clear our view that we cannot go ahead with the current proposition."

Read: No 10 rejects Miliband's call for cross party talks on MPs' pay

Prime Minister David Cameron has said he thinks it would be "simply unacceptable" for MPs to get a pay rise "at a time of public sector pay restraint".

Responding to Ed Miliband's question on a proposed pay rise "many times above inflation" in 2015, Cameron said there was agreement across the three main political parties on this issue.

He also said the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority - which is proposing a rise worth £7,600 - needed to "think again".

Read: MPs to be handed a £7,600 pay rise

The Deputy Prime Minister's office has responded to Ed Miliband's call for cross party talks to block the planned pay rise for MPs.

Sources point out that there is already cross party agreement on the issue: all three party leaders have publically expressed their opposition to the reported 11 per cent hike in salary.

Nick Clegg's aides also point out that the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority does not publish its recommendations until Thursday, so it would be wrong for politicians to get involved in a process - which is rightly independent of politicians - before the announcement has been made.

Earlier Downing Street declined to say whether David Cameron is ready to accept the expected above-inflation pay hike for MPs.

The PM's official spokesman told a regular Westminster media briefing:

Labour leader Ed Miliband has called for cross-party talks with the Conservatives and the Lib Dems over an expected 11% pay rise recommendation by the MPs' independent standards watchdog:

• Downing Street: MP pay rise proposals 'will have to be reviewed in 2015'

Labour's Jack Straw has said MPs pay must increase to attract "people of modest backgrounds" into politics.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) is expected to increase MPs' pay by 11 per cent to take effect after the 2015 general election.

Mr Straw, who will stand down as an MP at the next election, admitted there was never a right time to increase MPs pay but said the salary must be sufficient enough to attract a wide range of people including those who had not inherited family wealth or homes.

Speaking on Radio 4's The World This Weekend, the former Foreign Secretary questioned whether it was right MPs pay had "fallen so far behind" some primary and secondary school headteachers, local government figures and senior journalists.

Watch: IPSA should 'apply restraint' to MPs pay

"Most people would find it pretty extraordinary that [IPSA] would be recommending a large rise for MPs at a time when living standards in this country are under pressure," Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander told ITV News.

"I would still appeal to IPSA even at this late stage to recognise that the economic climate - the climate of pay for people in the public sector particularly - is one of continuing restraint and that same principle should be applied to MPs," he said.

The chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance campaign group has said that the "public simply do not back the increase" to MPs pay.

• Read: Fury over controversial plan to hand MPs a £7,600 pay rise