Backbench rebels demand 4.4% pay rise

Backbench MPs today challenged Gordon Brown's edicts on pay restraint by trying to award themselves a bumper pay rise plus perks.

Rebels were demanding an inflation-busting 4.4 per cent rise - and also trying to halt a crackdown on expenses.

Chancellor Alistair Darling delivered a stern warning on the need to set an example to other public sector workers who are being held to around two per cent. "I very firmly believe that MPs have to show restraint," he said. "We should not be asking other people to do what we are unwilling to do. MPs have to vote in a way that shows we understand what people are feeling and the need to keep inflation down."

Mr Darling urged MPs to back a clean-up of the Commons expenses system. MPs were voting tonight to set their salary and perks. Downing Street wants them to accept 2.2 per cent on their £61,181 salary.

A separate vote is being held on proposals to axe the socalled "John Lewis list" of goods MPs can buy at the public expense. The Government is also opposing a £4,500 pay rise for 26 inner London MPs. Outer London MPs face seeing their allowance for running a second home cut from £23,000 to around £10,000. Another key vote is over whether they should keep the addresses of their second homes a secret.

The pay curb and expenses crackdown has angered some MPs. But Tony Lloyd, the chairman of Labour backbenchers, has pointedly refused to back the rebels.