IN a week where the Leader of the House, Andrea Leadsom, appeared on television to blithely claim that a no-deal Brexit might be our only option – with all the financial hardship that would bring – we also learned that MPs at Westminster will receive yet another above-inflation pay hike.

From April, MPs salaries will go up by 2.7%, taking their salary to £79,468.

The move prompted anger from trade unions as well as the wider public. Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, called it “an outrage” and pointed out that civil servants are still subject to a “cruel 1% de-facto pay cap”.

It’s not a good look. MPs are still tainted by the sins of the 2009 expenses scandal and the wave of mistrust that it sparked. The row over the “hostile environment” of Universal Credit and the devastating impact it has had on low-income families, carers and people living with disabilities has gained widespread coverage this year. Next to those stories of needless poverty and hardship, MPs getting another pay rise appears callous. It has demonstrated the anger from the public at the gulf between those who make the rules and those that are adversely affected by them.

Decisions on MPs' pay are taken by ISPA and are outwith the control of Parliament or Government. Such changes don’t require the agreement of the House of Commons and MPs didn’t vote for the pay increase. Some have spoken out against it.

Still, as you would expect, there has been confusion on social media with some believing that MPs traipsed through the lobbies to award themselves extra cash for a job well done.

The pay hike illustrates what many see as a disconnect between Parliament and the people.

Some backbenchers are flirting with the idea of no deal and shamelessly re-branding it as a “clean Brexit”. It is jarring that those who have the power to influence the livelihoods of the rest of us do so safe in the knowledge that their pay-packets are insulated.

Trust and respect are earned, and while our Prime Minister has demonstrated her willingness to use the threat of such a calamity to force her deal through, nobody can blame the public for looking at MPs pay and thinking “they’re at it again”.

One of the enduring legacies of Brexit will be the loss of integrity and expectation of truthfulness in our public discourse. We have seen the Trumpian disingenuousness of those who falsely assert that crashing out on WTO terms is what people voted for in the EU referendum, all while shouting “fake news” at those who point out the damage it will bring.

Political literacy is desirable, but with so much of our debate poisoned by half-truths, misleading statements, vague platitudes and outright lies, it seems the EU referendum has brought far more anger and misinformation that enlightenment.

The fault of that lies with those who have the power to distil information to the public and offer it to them in good faith.

Some blame lies with the media for the false equivalence they offered between industry experts and paid contrarians to show “balance”. More recently they have attempted to repair the damage by offering jargon-busters alongside their online coverage of Brexit.

Some politicians have exploited the inherently complex nature of leaving the EU and used it to their advantage. They’ve reduced a complicated political process to a story of “elites” and “establishment” figures who are trying to thwart the will of the people.

That may help them in the short-term, but it is a move which will only further harm trust in our public figures in the future.

Some of the casualties of that mistrust are their own colleagues: the diligent and hard-working public servants who are painted with the same brush as the expenses cheats of a decade ago.

We see it every time misinformation is spread about MPs using infographics which detail large yearly expenses claims. These days, most of an MPs expenses go on staffing costs and running their constituency offices, not on moats and duck houses. Still, when politicians are willing to indulge in misinformation to aid their political cause, it shouldn’t come as a surprise when the public are quick to believe the worst of them.

The arguments for and against the hefty salaries of MPs are well-versed.

When ordinary people are experiencing insecure work, zero-hours contracts and the rising cost of living – set against the backdrop of years of austerity and an inhumane benefits system that is no longer the safety net is was designed to be – why is it that politicians are never the ones who have to feel the squeeze? Then there are those that argue that the instability of a job that you can be voted out of every five years means that politicians need to be generously recompensed. They point out that MPs often come from other – high-paying – industries and we need to pay more to attract the “brightest and the best”.

That argument would carry more weight if we weren’t currently witnessing the reckless ineptitude with which we are being led out of the EU or the casual disregard some politicians have for the livelihoods of their constituents and their jobs.

If the public are to feel that MPs deserve another pay increase, then it has to look like money well spent.

Given the state politics is in, I fear they may be waiting a while.