Rowen’s pay restraint welcomed

Date published: 09/01/2008

Rochdale’s Labour Parliamentary Candidate Simon Danczuk has welcomed Paul Rowen’s decision to back Gordon Brown by opposing an above inflation pay rise for MPs.

Mr Danczuk said he was pleased that the Liberal Democrat MP had demonstrated discipline by promising to vote to limit MPs pay rises, so they will stay in line with public sector workers like nurses and police. 

"This is a critical time for our economy and I’m pleased that Mr Rowen has shown a change of heart after he recently evaded the question and said he would wait to see the report on MPs pay first.  Now he’s making a decisive stand on supporting Gordon Brown’s anti-inflation strategy and I welcome this."

He added that he hoped Mr Rowen would now "stop making opportunistic remarks about public finances and recognise that this is a very dangerous time for the international economy".

"Like most people I want the police, the armed forces , nurses and other public sector workers to earn more money because I recognise the valuable work they do," stressed Mr Danczuk. "But I don’t want to see pay awards wiped out by uncontrollable inflation and a return to the rollercoaster economic ride we had under the last government when we suffered from two recessions.

"We’ve had a decade of low inflation, low interest rates and stable growth and employment under Gordon Brown and I’m sure Paul Rowen, like me, would want this to continue."

Referring to what he called "Liberal Democrat economic incompetence", he stressed that, on the subject of steering the economy through difficult times, he would take no lectures from the Liberal Democrats.

"The Liberal Democrats are renowned for their uncosted wish lists," he said. "At the launch of their last election manifesto Charles Kennedy was unable to explain their local income tax policy and was held up to national ridicule after he claimed it would raise the same amount as council tax. He was only short by £2.4 billion."