DAVID Cameron was last night under pressure to reveal whether or not he would accept an inflation busting pay rise after his deputy Nick Clegg said he would refuse the cash.
The Deputy Prime Minister had earlier waded into the row over MPs' salaries saying the public would find a large hike impossible to understand.
There are reports that the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) is considering setting a pay increase for MPs that would see their salaries rise to around £75,000.
Politicians are terrified of the potential for a backlash from voters, many of whom have seen their own pay frozen in recent years.
Parties also fear that the public has not forgotten, or forgiven, the expenses scandal which engulfed Westminster in 2009.
A Downing Street spokesman yesterday refused to be drawn on whether the Prime Minister would follow Mr Clegg's lead.
He said: "That's a hypothetical question given the report hasn't landed."
He added that it was "entirely up to the Deputy Prime Minister what he wants to say, the Prime Minister view is that this is an independent report, let's wait and see what it says".
A number of MPs across all three main parties at Westminster have rejected the planned hike.
Reports suggest that they could receive a pay rise of as much as £10,000 under plans being drawn up by Ipsa.
At the same time it is thought that Ipsa will reduce MPs' generous pension entitlement.
MPs hived off responsibility for pay and pensions to Ipsa after the expenses scandal. At the time, it was thought the public would no longer stomach MPs setting their own wages.
Many politicians thought that an independent body was the only way to de-politicise the system. That decision, however, means that now the party leaders hands are effectively tied.
Reports suggest that Mr Cameron has been told he would fail if he tried to interfere with the process, even to ensure MPs did not receive a large pay rise.
The basic pay for a MP is now £66,396 a year, compared with £56,358 a decade ago and £43,860 at the time of the 1997 General Election.
Under the rules, MPs from outside London can also claim up to £20,100 for the cost of renting a property in the capital. They are also entitled to up to £137,200 a year in staffing costs and £22,750 in office costs.
Not all MPs are against an increase in their pay.
Many argue that their wages have fallen behind their counterparts in other countries and that soon a career in politics will be the preserve of only those who can afford it.
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