Eddie Hughes defends MPs' pay rise: My job is not as glamorous and well paid as it looks

MPs were this week handed a 2.7 per cent pay hike by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, taking their basic annual salary up by £2,089 to £79,468.

It led to a backlash from trade unions, who said the spike was well above the amount offered to many civil servants.

But Eddie Hughes, the Conservative MP for Walsall North, said his seven-day-a-week job was "not quite as glamorous" as many people thought.

He told the Express & Star: "We are in an unusual position, being MPs, because the electorate can decide whether they have got value for money out of us at the next election.

"In terms of job security, there are a number of Conservative MPs – over 30 of them – who got elected in 2015, who were out of a job in 2017.

"So you never know how long you are going to hang on to the job for, and for me in a marginal seat like this I am comfortably working seven days a week every week.

If I'm not in Parliament I am out in events in the constituency and I spend most of Sunday reading papers and preparing speeches for the following week.

"So on an hourly rate it is not quite as glamorous and well paid as it might look, but as I say, if the public don't think I've done a good job and I'm value for money, they'll get rid of me."

The rise followed a 1.8 per cent increase in MPs’ pay last year and 1.4 per cent in 2017 – both of which represented real-term pay cuts – and inflation-busting rises of 1.3 per cent in 2016 and an increase from £67,000 to £74,000 the year before.

This year's rise was announced alongside a 1.5 per cent increase in wages for parliamentary staff.

Garry Graham, deputy general secretary of the Prospect union, said members had seen "more than a whiff of hypocrisy and double standards" in the announcement.