No austerity measures for him! Speaker Bercow protects his gold-plated pension... while other MPs reduce theirs

The Prime Minister has already given up the same special pension that Mr Bercow is clinging on to



John Bercow is fighting off attempts to slash his lucrative taxpayer-funded pension, it has emerged.



David Cameron has announced he will change the law to end the special pension arrangements for the Prime Minister and the Lord Chancellor, Ken Clarke.



But the House of Commons Speaker has made no moves to abandon his pension, which is based on the same scheme as Mr Cameron’s.



No arguments: Speaker John Bercow is still due to receive the lucrative pension that the Prime Minister has given up



It means he will be paid the equivalent of half his Speaker’s salary throughout his life, whenever he retires.

The Speaker’s pension is currently worth around £40,000 a year.



A private worker would require a pension pot in excess of £2million to match it.



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The ‘Great Office of State’ pension is also non-contributory, although Mr Bercow does pay towards his additional – and separate – MP’s pension.

To add to the pressure on Mr Bercow, MPs on Monday night voted to increase their pension payments. One senior Conservative MP said: ‘Mr Bercow’s behaviour is a disgrace.



‘Everyone else realises that if we are asking the public sector to contribute more for their pensions, then so should we.’



MPs voted to hand over control of their pensions to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, which administers the expenses regime.



They also agreed to increase their contributions to pensions by 3 per cent in line with better-paid civil servants. Emma Boon, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘The public will be shocked at the huge cost of the Speaker’s gold-plated pension, it’s unbelievable that he is refusing to contribute to it while expecting taxpayers to pick up the bill.



‘MPs made the right choice by handing over decisions regarding their pensions to IPSA, the Speaker should follow suit. His pension is one of the most generous in the country, he already enjoys a lot of other privileges such as his grace and favour apartment that taxpayers fund entirely.



‘MPs are overseeing necessary public sector pension reform, they, and the speaker in particular, cannot be immune to this.’



The Speaker said he had not discussed the issue with the Prime Minister.



A spokesman for Mr Bercow said: ‘The Speaker would be happy to discuss his pension arrangements with No 10 if they were to raise the matter with him.’



A No 10 spokesman said: ‘The Speaker is free to forfeit his Great Office of State pension at any time, as the Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor both have done.’

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