MPs to vote on below-inflation pay deal

|PIC1|MPs will decide on Thursday whether to accept a below-inflation pay rise after Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged them to help keep a tight rein on public spending.

Brown thinks MPs should set an example for other workers paid out of the government purse like teachers and police, who have been angered by their pay awards.

The proposed 1.9 percent pay rise for 2007-2008 would take MPs' salaries from 60,277 pounds to 61,820 pounds.

"We must show exactly the same discipline that we ask of other people," Brown said in an interview earlier this month. Pay rises must be controlled to help keep inflation under control, he added.

The suggested rise is lower than the inflation rate of 2.1 percent and less than a 2.56 percent year-on-year rise recommended by a salaries review body.

The government has also proposed an end to the practice of MPs voting on their own pay.

The leaders of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats support pay restraint.

Brown, hoping to lead by example, has offered to take a cut in his pension in line with new pension arrangements suggested for future prime ministers.

On Wednesday, thousands of police marched through London to protest at the government's decision not to backdate a pay rise.

Officers said the decision effectively cut the rise to 1.9 percent, less than the rate of inflation and saving the government 30 million pounds.

Trades Union Congress President Dave Prentis said the refusal to give public sector workers above-inflation pay deals was "utterly unfair".