A Welsh Government minister has become the first in the Labour cabinet to say that he will give away a controversial £10,000 pay rise to charity in the next Assembly term, if re-elected.
Leighton Andrews, AM for Rhondda and public services minister, joins six other AMs in effectively boycotting the proposal by the independent remuneration board for the National Assembly, by planning to either giving the increase away to charity or not taking it at all from the taxpayer.
His main challenger at the next election – Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood – has also said she would not take the proposed rise at all.
News that AMs are set to receive a £10,000 pay rise if they succeed in the May 2016 elections prompted scorn from several political groups in the Assembly on Friday.
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Leighton: 'I will donate it to Rhondda charities'
Mr Andrews made his views clear on a closed Facebook group about the Rhondda Cynon Taff area. He said: “Last time they gave AMs a salary increase I didn’t agree with, I donated it to a Rhondda charity.
“If they give us this increase after the next Assembly election, I will donate it to Rhondda charities.”
If he was to return to the backbenches Leighton Andrews could recieve £64,000, but if he was to be kept on as minister he would see his pay increase from £96,340 to £100,000.
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Seven AMs now boycotting the proposal
The move is likely to put pressure on his cabinet colleagues to do the same or similar. First Minister Carwyn Jones said last November, when the proposal was first mooted, that the rise could not be supported, but it remains unclear whether he would do the same as Mr Andrews.
Ms Wood and Plaid AM for South East Wales Lindsay Whittle have both said that they would not take the planned rise at all. Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams and North Wales Lib Dem AM Aled Roberts have indicated they would give their pay rise to charity. Tory AM Nick Ramsay has said he’d give the rise to charity.
Bethan Jenkins, a Plaid AM for South Wales West, has also indicated that she would not take the pay rise.
Pay to go up from £54k to £64k in new term
Last Friday the remuneration board indicated it wanted to give AMs a pay boost of about £10,000 – from £54,391 to £64,000 after next year’s Assembly elections – confirming its previous consultation.
On Friday members of the board said that AMs can implement a salary sacrifice if they wish – although it was made clear that wouldn’t change their decision.
The board argues that pay has acted as a barrier to attracting highest calibre candidates to the National Assembly for Wales.
But several AMs have argued that, in a time of pay restraint elsewhere in the public sector, that such an increase is unjustifiable.
