Allerdale Councillors failed to resolve whether or not they agreed to a motion calling on the Government to review its freeze on public sector pay, instead deferring the decision to January.

A long debate over a motion originally proposed by independent councillor Peter Little failed to crystallise in a decision on Wednesday.

Mr Little started proceedings by declaring he was "appalled" to learn of the Chancellor's spending review plan to impose a freeze on the salaries of the majority of public sector pay workers in light of the impact of Covid-19, while the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), the independent body which reviews the pay of MPs, recommended a pay increase for Parliamentarians.

He described it as an "insult" to those in the public sector who have worked on the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic, including police officers, refuse collectors, teachers and those in the Armed Forces.

He proposed that Allerdale Council requested that the Government review the pay freeze, to show public sector workers the "gratitude they so deserve".

Independent councillor Herbert Briggs made an uncontested amendment highlighting that all those working in the care sector had also very much been on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic.

Conservative councillor Alan Pitcher then called for a further amendment to the motion, calling on the Government and IPSA to freeze the pay of MPs "to show respect to all public sector employees".

"Currently the private sector is in pain. People are losing their jobs, shops are closing, and businesses are going into administration," he said.

"We need to be aware of this in any debate, especially when you think most people in different walks of life, private and public have suffered.

"It will be this way for a long while yet."

He also asked for the council to recognise the work of all the staff and management at Allerdale Council who had kept the authority running throughout the pandemic.

Allerdale's deputy leader Mike Johnson stressed that it was IPSA rather than MPs who set the pay of MPs.

He said the body pegs MP earning to "changes in average earnings in the public sector, as published by the Office for National Statistics.

"Earlier this month, IPSA proposed that MPs wages should continue to be linked to the public sector in this way.

"It has launched a consultation on MP's salaries. I hope anyone complaining made their feelings known through that process and aren't just virtue signalling."

He added that "senior cabinet members, including the PM have written to IPSA to tell them they don't think a pay rise is in order".

Mr Johnson also mentioned that Workington's MP, Mark Jenkinson, joined with more than 40 other new Conservative MPs recently to declare a pay rise for MPs would be inappropriate in the current circumstances.

"All ministers and the Prime Minister cut their own pay in 2010, and successive Conservative Governments have frozen that ministerial pay at 2010 levels to date," Mr Johnson said.

Mr Pitcher's amendment was accepted by the council following a vote, of 23 in favour over 14 against.

Then Labour councillor Michael Heaslip called for a further amendment, asking that the council agree the Government's public sector pay freeze was a "cynical act of division, instead of uniting the UK behind the national effort to fight the economic and health crisis we face".

He also asked for the council to ask Allerdale's chief executive to write to the Government to clarify how the proposed pay rise for those earning under £24,000, of at least £250, will work in practice.

Mr Heaslip described this as a "hollow promise", which will result in payments falling on "cash-strapped councils".

"It is also unclear how the lowest paid in the care sector will be reached," he added.

Mr Johnson's added that the Government's upcoming budget "will set out where it's funded from".

"Why are we wasting time debating national politics?" he asked.

"We need to focus on what we can achieve in Allerdale."

Proceedings were drawn to a close after Conservative councillor Marion Fitzgerald proposed that further debate on the motion be deferred to the next council meeting in January.

Following a vote from councillors, this was agreed to.