Millionaire ex-Chancellor Sajid Javid has claimed MPs' salaries are partly why so many are quitting - and also to blame for a lack of talent among some ministers.
The former investment banker, who held a string of top Government jobs, said the £86,000-a-year basic salary for MPs was "a lot of money - more than double the national average - but you get what you pay for".
His comments are likely to anger hard-working public sector workers, who could have pay rises blocked if ministers overrule recommendations from pay review bodies.
MPs were handed a £2,400 pay rise in April, taking their basic salary to more than £86,000-a-year.
Salary levels are set by Ipsa, an independent watchdog set up following the expenses scandal, which makes a calculation based on public sector wages.
Mr Javid argued that it would be better to "halve the number of MPs and double the salaries" in an event hosted by the Whitehall think tank, the Institute for Government.
He said: "You are expecting people to do these jobs for something other than income - and a lot of people do that in the public sector, as they should.
"But there's a level where the quality within Government starts to suffer."
He said the Treasury had tried to hire an AI expert for £70,000, when companies were prepared to pay ten times that.
Asked if Parliament was losing expertise, he said: "There are lots of reasons that MPs will be standing down but one of the issues - not just in this Parliament, as we get to the end of each Parliament obviously MPs leave and there will be lots of reasons.
"But one of the reasons I think either people leave or you're not getting more diverse backgrounds of people in different professions as well wanting to join Parliament, I think salary is an issue.
Mr Javid, whose father worked as a bus driver, said the MPs' salary was "a lot of money" but added: "You get what you pay for.
"If people want to see your GPs or senior nurses or headteachers or an accountant give up their job to want to come into Parliament they have to take a massive fall in their lifestyle to do it.
"A lot of people are not willing to do that. So you tend to get in Parliament either really rich people who don't need money and therefore they don't care if their salary is £88,000 or £28,000.
"Or you will get people that were earning sort of £30,000 - £80,000 is a big jump but they might not come with the skills that Parliament needs.
"If I had my way I would halve the number of MPs and double the salaries. That wouldn't cost the taxpayer a penny and you would get a much higher quality of Parliament - and ministers.”
In a veiled swipe at some of his Tory colleagues, Mr Javid said there were some ministers who were "not very good at their jobs".
He added: "There will be appointments of ministers that a Prime Minister may even know he's probably not the best person to do that job, but I've got to appoint him or her to that job."
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Mr Javid, who is stepping down as an MP at the next election, also took a swipe at Liz Truss for ignoring Treasury advice about her tax-slashing mini Budget.
He said. "The Treasury would have told her, that's orthodoxy at work. She ignored it and the country paid the consequences."
The two-time Tory leadership hopeful, who was elected in 2010, has announced he will stand down at the next election.
He dramatically quit as Chancellor before the Covid pandemic gripped the UK after a power struggle with Boris Johnson's then-aide Dominic Cummings.
Mr Javid was made Health Secretary in 2021 after Matt Hancock was forced to quit for breaking his own Covid rules by snogging his aide.
He was replaced by Steve Barclay at the Department of Health and Social Care last year.
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