Britain’s “Baby of the House” to Donate Over Half of Her Salary to Charity
Britain’s youngest MP has vowed to only take home £35,000 of her £79k salary.
Labour’s Nadia Whittome, 23, will donate a huge chunk of her salary to Nottingham charities – saying until wages rise for the likes of nurses and firefighters, she will only take a “worker’s wage”.
The basic annual salary for an MP from April 1 2019 before tax is £79,468 – with Whittome planning to take home £35,000 after tax.
MPs also receive expenses to cover the costs of running an office, employing staff, having somewhere to live in London or their constituency, and travelling between Parliament and their constituency.
She told Nottinghamshire Live. “It’s not about philanthropy and it’s not that MPs don’t deserve that salary, it’s the fact our teaching assistants, nurses and firefighters do as well.
“When they get the pay rise they deserve, so will I. I hope this decision sparks a conversation about earnings.
“It’s the greatest honour of my life to represent my home city where I was born and bred.”
But, it proved to be a devastating night for Ms Whittome’s party, which took just 203 seats, Labour’s worst performance since the 1930s.
The Tories won a Commons majority of 80, the party’s largest since 1987.
Speaking of the result for her party, Ms Whittome said: “We have lessons to learn and need a period of reflection to look at the issues that went wrong.
“This election was ultimately about Brexit. We tried to cut through that and talk about other issues in the country.
“I reject that this is the fault of the left or because we were too Remain.
“I will work to tackle the vast inequality people will face. The next five years are about protecting local services, doing what we can to protect our right and to tackle inequality.
“I would like to thank everybody who voted for me, spoke to me on the doorsteps, let us use their community centres to campaign and to all the activists who secured this Labour win in Nottingham city.”
Culled from The Mirror
