British Prime Minister David Cameron plans to slap a pay freeze on his ministers until 2020 in an attempt to show that the new government will share in new austerity cuts, BBC reported. Writing in ‘The Sunday Times’, Cameron says the Queen’s speech which lays out the business of the government on Wednesday will contain plans to keep ministerial salaries at their current level for the lifetime of this parliament. The pledge will save 800,000 pounds ($1.24 million) a year and 4 million pounds by 2020 – and will clear the way for a fresh crackdown on benefits in the first fully Conservative party budget plan in 18 years, due on July 8. UK Chancellor George Osborne has already announced a two-year freeze in welfare payments as part of his plan to shave 12 billion pounds from Britain’s benefits bill in order to eliminate the deficit by 2018-19. In a clear signal that further cuts will be an early priority, Cameron says there is “still half of” the deficit to pay off.
