Pendle MP, Gordon Prentice, has applauded Polly Toynbee’s decision to reveal her salary which is £106,000.

The journalist’s disclosure came in the first session last week of the Public Administration Select Committee’s new inquiry into Executive Pay in the Public Sector. She was responding to a question by Pendle MP, Gordon Prentice.

The Pendle MP has tabled a Commons motion urging "journalists, broadcasters, commentators, politicians and others to follow her example before pronouncing on pay levels in the public sector." The MP says they should first disclose their own income "earned and unearned".

Speaking from Westminster earlier today, the MP said: "Some of the most ferocious denunciations of pay in the public sector come from people whose own salaries are huge."

"Private sector salaries shouldn’t be a matter just for the private sector. Billions of pounds of pension fund money are invested in the private sector every year."

Note to Editors: The Commons motion which appears on the Commons order paper tomorrow, 6 May, reads:

POLLY TOYNBEE’S SALARY

This House applauds Polly Toynbee, the Guardian journalist and co-author of the book "Unjust Rewards" for volunteering details of her salary to the Public Administration Select Committee in its first evidence session on Executive Pay in the Public Sector; notes that she receives £106,000 and urges journalists, broadcasters, commentators, politicians and others to follow her example before pronouncing on pay levels in the public sector by first disclosing their own income, earned and unearned.

Gordon Prentice MP