MPs are to get a pay rise from the first of April.

The 1.8 per cent increase which has been determined by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority will take the pay for a backbench member from £76,011 to £77, 379.

It means that since April 2010, MPs’ pay has risen by 17 per cent from £65,738.

IPSA says it uses the changes in average earnings in the public sector using figures from the Office of National Statistics to calculate any increase.

Conservative MP for Mid-Worcestershire Nigel Huddleston said it’s right that an independent body sets MPs’ pay.

He said: “It used to be the case a long time ago that MPs would vote for their own pay rise, but I’ve never done that, it’s all done completely independently.

“The increase is in line with the average increase in the public sector, and it’s right that as public servants we get an increase in line with that. I’m comfortable with that.”

Mr Huddleston’s colleagues in south Worcestershire, Robin Walker and Harriett Baldwin, both Conservatives, receive their MPs pay but also get an extra amount as they are ministers.

However, they won’t actually see any more money in their pockets.

Under a rule imposed of Prime Minister David Cameron, they will receive the increase in their MPs’ salary but that extra will be taken off the money they receive as a minister, between £22,000 for a Parliamentary Under-secretary, as Mr Walker is and £31,000 for a Minister of State like Mrs Baldwin.

Mrs Baldwin, the MP for West Worcestershire, said: “Ministers receive extra pay which has been frozen for many years.”

Worcester’s MP Mr Walker said: “I’ve always said, since I was elected after the expenses scandal, that MPs should not be the only people who decide their own pay, and I’m glad it’s now decided totally independently.”