HOW appalling to hear that MPs are to get a 10 per cent pay rise at the same time we hear that 720 jobs are to be axed at Tata Steel, mostly in Rotherham (Echo, July 17).

Tata says that energy costs are twice as much in the UK in comparison to Germany and claims this is a significant factor for the job losses.

If that is the case, then steel workers and the unions should continue to lobby MPs to get energy costs reduced as more steel job losses will be lost.

The hypocrisy of a 10 per cent pay rise must be nauseating for the public sector as they are capped at a paltry one per cent pay rise for the next four years. Very unfair indeed.

George Dunning, former Teesside steel worker, Ormesby.