Mike Hancock News
MP Backs Troops Pay Campaign
Following news that our troops could be better off stacking shelves in supermarkets, Lib Dem MP for Portsmouth South and member of the Defence Select Committee, Mike Hancock has backed a campaign launched today by Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg for better pay for our armed forces.
Mike and the Lib Dem leader are saying that fully trained Privates, for example, should be paid at a similar level to new-entrant police constables or fire-fighters. A new-entrant constable for example gets an annual salary of £22,680 while a Private gets £16,681 - equivalent to around £6.74 an hour. A "level 1" Able Seaman in the Royal Navy is also on £16,681. The minimum wage level is £5.73 an hour. Around half of soldiers are unhappy with their pay. The budget over-runs on the purchase of the Type 45 destroyers, which the Public Accounts Committee state was due to failings by the Government, would pay for the salary increases five times over.
Mike Hancock said: "I am very pleased that Nick Clegg has launched this campaign today. Our soldiers and service personnel do a difficult, demanding and dangerous job. And it is clear that there is widespread dissatisfaction over pay. And I know from my work on the Defence Select Committee that this is not the only issue and there are also issues over better accommodation for example and more and better equipment and helicopters for frontline troops in Afghanistan and elsewhere. But we have had countless examples of the waste in defence procurement come before our committee. In terms of the overall Government spending and even the defence budget we are talking about a very small amount - about 1% of the defence budget. There is though one thing that is absolutely essential to an effective military and can't be ducked and that is the morale of our troops. And that is clearly suffering big time. Pay is not the only issue but it is a major factor. I can't understand why the Government values so poorly the difficult work that our armed forces do - especially as that may include putting their lives on the line for our country."
Notes: Details of the campaign can be accessed at http://www.nickclegg.com/armedforcespay/ or http://tinyurl.com/kmfmmm. There is also a link on the front page of Mike's website.
There are more figures on pay and details of the Liberal Democrat proposals at http://www.nickclegg.com/armedforcespay/
It has been calculated that the pay for a Private on £16,681 a year over the number of hours worked is equivalent to £6.74. The JobCentrePlus website is for example today advertising a job for "Replenishment Staff" for £7.37 an hour - type HER/13970 in the search box at http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/Internet/setLocale.do?country=GB&language=en&page=/initialise.do
A summary of the Public Accounts Committee report on the Type 45 destroyers can be found at www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmpubacc/372/37203.htm
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