Top Tories call for MPs' salaries to be doubled

Sir Patrick Cormack, who was one of the candidates for Commons Speaker, said members' salaries should be doubled - from £64,766 to over £130,000 - in return for scrapping their controversial second homes allowances.

Douglas Hogg, who claimed expenses for the cleaning of his moat, has also called for MPs to be given six figure salaries, with "appropriate expenses".

Mr Hogg said their pay had fallen so low that it was not sufficient to support the lifestyle "to which most professional and business classes aspire".

However, Chancellor Alistair Darling, who is standing in for Gordon Brown while he is on holiday, said that such demands could not be justified at a time when ordinary people were struggling.

"At a time when everyone else is pulling in their belts, at a time when people are worried about their jobs, some people are going part-time, MPs cannot be treated any differently from anyone else," he said.

Last week, Conservative leader David Cameron was forced to slap down frontbencher Alan Duncan, when he said MPs were living on "rations" in the wake of the expenses scandal.

Both Sir Patrick and Mr Hogg made their comments in submissions to the Committee on Standards in Public Life, which is holding an inquiry into the system of MPs' expenses.