Former First Minister and DUP leader Arlene Foster says MPs are underpaid and should get a pay rise to attract more people to the role.
In an interview with This is Money, Baroness Foster was asked about her personal finances and stated that while MP salaries of more than £90,000 are “very good”, there is a case for a pay rise.
When asked when the best year of her financial life was, Baroness Foster said: “I hope it is yet to come! No seriously, as First Minister of Northern Ireland I was paid well, but it was a demanding job.
“And while MPs get a very good salary [£91,346], it’s not huge, and though it’s not a popular thing to say, I think there’s a case to be made for raising MPs’ pay if we want to attract the best people to Parliament, given all that goes with the job.”
Now sitting in the House of Lords, Baroness Foster also appears on TV channel GB News as a commentator and presenter.
The Co Fermanagh woman stepped down from her role as First Minister and DUP leader in 2021. In the interview she said the £123,000 per year she was paid as First Minister wasn’t “silly money”.
“It’s only three years since I stepped down as a politician in Northern Ireland, and that job certainly didn’t pay silly money,” Baroness Foster said.
“Being a peer in the House of Lords and doing a bit of TV presenting and commentating, as I’m now doing, isn’t going to make me madly rich either. Not that I’m complaining.
“For those of us who live outside London, I think the current daily Lords attendance rate of £361 is fair, since we have to cover our subsistence and accommodation.”
