THE region’s MPs are in line for an increase in their salaries after the Parliamentary regulator confirmed a ten per cent pay hike.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) decision will mean MPs basic pay climbs from £67,060 to £74,000.

The move led to a backlash from critics with Prime Minister David Cameron under pressure to say whether he would accept the rise or give it to charity as some MPs, including Labour leadership contenders Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall have pledged to.

Downing Street said the PM disagreed with the decision, but when pressed further added that how he spent his salary was a “private matter”.

Meanwhile, The Northern Echo contacted 15 of the region’s MPs by telephone and e-mail to ask them if they planned to forego the pay rise and whether they would also give the money to charity.

However most failed to respond or were simply unavailable. Of those that did comment, Darlington MP Jenny Chapman said the ten per cent pay rise was “wrong and should not be happening”.

Mrs Chapman did not say whether she planned to keep the full amount, but said she would continue to give to charity.

Fellow Labour MP Phil Wilson, who represents Sedgefield, said: “It is quite right that MPs should not be able to vote on their own pay and that is why an independent regulator was set up.”

Again, like Mrs Chapman, Mr Wilson would not definitively say what his intention in respect of the pay rise was.

Asked about whether he too might give it to charity, he said: “I have always given to local causes and will continue to do that.”

Many MPs perks have been scrapped following the scandal which saw many Parliamentarians supplement their pay with spurious expenses claims.

Nonetheless the ten per cent pay rise is bound to cause friction particularly in the public sector where pay has been capped at one per cent for another four years as part of Chancellor George Osborne’s austerity measures.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: "If pay restraint is at an end for politicians - who are public servants too - ¬ it should also be over for nurses, teaching assistants, hospital cleaners, council staff and other public sector workers.

"The Government felt able to ignore the advice of the NHS pay review body, but not, it would seem, the equivalent body for MPs."

Ipsa chairman Sir Ian Kennedy defended the rise. He said: "Over the last Parliament, MPs' pay increased by two per cent, compared to five per cent in the public sector and ten per cent in the whole economy.

"It is right that we make this one-off increase and then formally link MPs' pay to public sector pay."

Sir Ian said MPs pay was an issue which had been “ducked for decades” with their salaries being supplemented by an opaque and discredited system of allowances.