Another reform introduced by Lloyd George's 1911 
government was payment for MPs. In the middle ages, 
knights, citizens, and burgesses had received pay from 
their boroughs and shires for attending parliament - but 
even this subsistence had vanished by the end of the 17th 
century, after which only the wealthy could afford to take 
up the job. 

Throughout the 19th century, reform groups had agitated for
MPs to be paid, in order to open membership of the house to a
wider social range. At the turn of the century, the cause was being championed by Keir Hardie and the infant Labour Party. Initial rates of pay in 1911 were set at £400 per year.