Sun MP Pay Rise Claim Busted

Back in July, the piss-poor SunNation website ran a particularly lame story on this year’s controversial MPs’ pay rise. “NOT A SINGLE MP DONATES ANY OF £7K PAY RISE TO CHARITY DESPITE PLEDGES … A scheme was even specially introduced to encourage donations” screamed the headline, not telling readers that the pay rise had only been given 11 days earlier, and it was during the summer holidays.

So it should surprise no-one to see that not only has the Super Soaraway Currant Bun returned to the story, it is once again a total crock of crap being served up to those unwise enough to shell out good money for the paper. The headline, “Exclusive Sun investigation … SURPRISE! SURPRISE! Just 25 out of 650 MPs have given £7k pay rise to charity”, is unequivocal. And the claim is unequivocally wrong.

This should not “surprise” anyone, though, as the name on the by-line, that of the odious flannelled fool Henry Cole, formerly tame gofer to the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines at the Guido Fawkes blog, is the epitome of rank dishonesty. So how long does it take Master Cole’s claims to fall flat? Er, not very long at all, sadly.

“A MEASLY 26 out of 650 MPs have given their jumbo £7,000 pay rises to charity, a Sun probe reveals … Pledges to donate the controversial ten per cent hikes were made by 69 members in May” claims the article. Do go on. “The extra money — which took their salary from £67,060 to £74,000 — has been paid automatically into their bank accounts since July … And instead of being channelled into a variety of worthy causes as promised, most of it appears to have vanished”. APPEARS TO HAVE VANISHED?

So Master Cole DOESN’T KNOW. It gets worse: “we contacted the 69 pledgers to ask where their extra dosh has gone and only a third were willing to tell us”. So he STILL DOESN’T KNOW. Try again. “Last night No10 would not reveal what Mr Cameron had done with his share”. You STILL DON’T KNOW. And there’s more. A lot more.

“Former Labour leader Ed Miliband, who had vowed to scrap the pay rise had his party won the General Election, was not available for comment last night”. So you DON’T KNOW. “Dozens on both sides of the House refused to say if they had given it away or pocketed it themselves”. So you STILL DON’T KNOW.

“Not a single SNP MP who publicly pledged to donate the money to worthy local causes responded to questions from The Sun”. They saw the flannelled fool coming, which means he STILL DOESN’T KNOW. “[Tory MP Andrew] Percy said last night: ‘It isn’t really any business of yours what I do with the salary of the job I am paid to do’ … But he confirmed he has added new charities to his monthly donations”. THAT DOESN’T MEAN HE GAVE THE PAY RISE AWAY. This is truly lamentable “journalism”.

And it gets worse still: “IPSA declared 18 MPs have told them to donate directly, but refused to reveal which due to data protection laws”. So you STILL DON’T KNOW. The headline claim is total bunk. But then, if you employ pretend journalists, you shouldn’t be surprised if they bring you pretend stories.