No need to pay so much

H DAVIES (Have Your Say, 27 September) asks whether we would prefer "only people with money could afford to be MPs".

Backbench MPs are as rich today as at the time of the much admired Disraeli when they received no salary and very little expenses.

The salary of today's backbenchers is double the average salary and much more than most people get because of the way averages are calculated; the most usual is always lower than the average, economists call it the median.

Backbenchers live in some of the best houses in the constituency, have another residence in London, an office in or near Parliament, an office in their constituency and generous expenses for everything they spend money on. The MPs of more than 100 years ago offered themselves for election with no financial incentive. Today's MPs seek the job because it is so well paid and a big promotion they could not otherwise get.

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There is no need to pay them so much.

There are keen activists who would do the job for the minimum wage and have a better understanding of how the rest of us live.

Gwilym Levell

Tonna