NORTH Essex MPs have said their salary is not an issue for them to decide.

In an anonymous survey carried out the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), the body responsible for setting Westminster politicians’ pay, MPs asked on average for a salary of £86,250 - a one-third increase.

But Sir Bob Russell (MP for Colchester), Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex), Priti Patel (Witham) and Brooks Newmark (Braintree) all said the decision should be left with IPSA.

Clacton MP Douglas Carswell also did not respond to the IPSA survey, but said the idea of a big wage hike for MPs was absurd.

Other findings from the survey included more than two-thirds of MPs thought they were underpaid on their current salary of £65,738, which is more than double the national average wage.

Just over one-quarter of those polled also thought their salaries should rise by more than one per cent each year in 2013 and 2014, though the majority of politicians agreed with IPSA’s decision to cap salaries at the same level as public sector wages and benefits.