LETTER: MPs' salaries: market forces, professional parity and job cuts

From Mr Stephen Pollard

Sir: There is a "market argument" against paying MPs higher salaries which Andrew Marr ignores. The price of a good - a worker's salary - should rise if there is insufficient supply to meet the demand (to "tempt" workers employed in another sphere in to the understaffed sector), and should fall if there is oversupply.

The huge number of people seeking selection as parliamentary candidates for both main parties suggests that there is if anything an oversupply of potential MPs and, if market principles are introduced to ensure that they are more efficiently deployed, MPs' salaries should be cut.

Yours faithfully,

Stephen Pollard

London, W2

16 January