GoFundMe Started For Politician Who Said £82,000 Was A 'Grim' Salary

A GoFundMe page has been set up for the politician who said that £82,000 was a 'grim' salary.

Sir Peter Bottomley, a Conservative MP for Worthing West, claimed that some of his fellow Members of Parliament were struggling to live off the poultry sum.

He told the The New Statesman that he believed politicians, who currently earn £81,931, should earn the same as doctors - £100,700.

However, with the government removing the £20 Universal Credit uplift this week, his remarks didn't exactly go down too well with lots of people out there.

And in a tongue-in-cheek move, someone set up a fundraising page to offer some support to Sir Peter during this trying time.

PA

The page, which is about halfway to its £1,000 target, reads: "In light of Sir Peter Bottomley (conservative MP for Worthing) making the stark revelation yesterday that he finds it incredibly hard to live on his MPs salary of £82k a year, I've decided to try and raise some money so that he and others that are so in need of financial support to feed themselves and their families don't go hungry.

"My heart quite honestly bled for him when I heard of the struggles of him and his colleagues, on the same day that they implemented a £20 cut to universal credit, affecting hundreds of thousands of families across the UK."

However, if you're worried that the money donated will find its way to Sir Peter, fear not.

An update to the page says: "Cheers for all the donations so far... Sorry to anyone who got absolutely spammed by this on their Twitter feed this morning.

"A couple of people have been concerned that the money is going to go to the MPs due to the wording of the campaign.

"That's not the case.

"Any money raised here goes to The Trussell Trust to support them in their amazing work"

PA

Sir Peter had told the publication that he believes MPs work extremely hard and that they deserve to be paid as much as some of the country's brightest and best.

"I take the view that being an MP is the greatest honour you could have, but a general practitioner in politics ought to be paid roughly the same as a general practitioner in medicine," he said.

"Doctors are paid far too little nowadays. But if they would get roughly £100,000 a year, the equivalent for an MP to get the same standard of living would be £110-£115,000 a year.

"It's never the right time, but if your MP isn't worth the money, it's better to change the MP than to change the money."

"I don't know how they manage. It's really grim."

How about a clap instead, Pete?

Topics: UK News, UK politics, Funny, Charity, doctors

Dominic Smithers

Dominic graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History. Like you, Dom has often questioned how much use a second language has been. Well, after stints working at the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express, along with never setting foot in France, he realised the answer is surprisingly little. But I guess, c'est la vie. Contact us at [email protected]

@SmithersDom