AN MP is supporting a public sector pay freeze for the highest earners.

MP Graham Jones said: “To get unemployment falling and reduce the deficit, we need restraint on pay in the public sector to match the private sector wage restraint.

“In 2009 we announced a one per cent pay cap for two years, including a freeze for the highest paid workers like senior civil servants and NHS managers.

"And we also set out a process to limit the state’s contribution to public sector pensions.

“I know that some people in the trade union movement and in the Labour Party will expect us to oppose this continued pay restraint.

"But we can’t and we won’t.

"Ed Miliband and I cannot promise public sector workers higher wages when public spending is so tight.”