Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Those lucrative second jobs
Representing people should be a full time job. That should certainly be the case during a pandemic when many are struggling to make ends meet, having been furloughed or laid off, seen their businesses or those of their employer go down the pan, or losing moeny because of the need to self-isolate or through sickness. Unfortunately, not all MPs see this the same way.
Over on the Open Democracy site, it is revealed that Members of Parliament earned almost £5m from second jobs and side hustles during the first year of the pandemic. They say that while huge swathes of the population were furloughed, some parliamentarians topped up their income with paid advice to businesses on COVID policy, while others took jobs with firms that won test-and-trace contracts:
In all, more than a third of MPs reported additional earnings above their standard £82,000 salary since the first lockdown began on 23 March last year.
The highest earner was former prime minister Theresa May, who received £616,000 in speaking fees over the past 12 months – including more than £130,000 for three speeches delivered on video calls.
In August, onetime chancellor Sajid Javid took a £150,000-a-year job as an adviser to JP Morgan, which involves 80-96 hours of work per year.
While keeping his seat in Parliament, former attorney general Geoffrey Cox started a new job at an international law firm, Withers LLP – boasting an annual salary of £468,000 a year. Reports suggest Mr Cox will help the company to “open doors with foreign governments”.
Overall, 237 MPs declared outside earnings during the 12 months since 23 March 2020. Together, this amounts to £4.9m of extra pay.
What galls above anything is that several MPs have seen their incomes rise as a direct result of the pandemic:
In July, when the government was under pressure to increase COVID testing, Conservative MP Alun Cairns accepted a job advising a science company involved in testing. The former Welsh secretary said he was offered the £15,000-a-year role at BBI Group because he knew the chairman.
Tory MP Richard Fuller was paid £65,000 moonlighting at a venture capital firm called Investcorp Securities Ltd. This included £30,000 for “consultancy work on the impact of COVID on portfolio companies”.
One of those “portfolio companies” is Cambio, a private health firm, which was handed a £63,000 NHS contract last week, without competition from other providers.
Former environment secretary Owen Paterson was paid £100,000 a year to act as a consultant to Randox Laboratories Ltd, at a rate of £120 an hour. On 30 March, the company was awarded a £133m COVID-testing contract by the government, without any other companies being allowed to bid for the work. Less than two weeks later, Paterson personally spoke to health minister Lord Bethell on a phone call with Randox.
Conservative MP Bill Wiggin was paid tens of thousands of pounds as the director of various offshore finance ventures, in the tax havens of Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. On top of a £49,140 salary, he has also received ‘director’s fees’ of more than £21,000 and £7,500 in bonuses in the past year.
Former cabinet minister George Freeman broke the ministerial code by failing to seek official approval before receiving £5,000 for consultancy work to a company producing protective equipment used by the NHS.
Meanwhile, the Conservative MP for Wokingham, John Redwood, banked £237,000 from wealth management firm Charles Stanley & Co, while his fellow backbencher Philip Davies was paid almost £50,000 by gambling giant GVC Holdings. GVC donated £1,500 worth of tickets to the Shipley MP for last year’s Cheltenham race meeting, which took place just days before Boris Johnson announced a national lockdown.
Last month, North Wiltshire MP James Gray was paid £550 by online media training provider Electric Airwaves “for helping train a potential witness coming before the public accounts committee”.
As the site points out all of these additional earnings are legal, and in some cases led to money being given to charity, but most second jobs are accepted as additional income. Nor was this activity restricted to Conservative MPs; members of the Labour Party and the SNP also declared additional earnings.
Open Democracy also reports that the money earned from moonlighting comes on top of the extra income that many politicians receive from renting out private properties. Some 116 MPs are currently registered as landlords, each earning at least £10,000 a year from rent.
There are no rules banning MPs from taking second jobs – and there are no set hours for parliamentary work. Surely, now we are in the twenty first century, that must change.
Over on the Open Democracy site, it is revealed that Members of Parliament earned almost £5m from second jobs and side hustles during the first year of the pandemic. They say that while huge swathes of the population were furloughed, some parliamentarians topped up their income with paid advice to businesses on COVID policy, while others took jobs with firms that won test-and-trace contracts:
In all, more than a third of MPs reported additional earnings above their standard £82,000 salary since the first lockdown began on 23 March last year.
The highest earner was former prime minister Theresa May, who received £616,000 in speaking fees over the past 12 months – including more than £130,000 for three speeches delivered on video calls.
In August, onetime chancellor Sajid Javid took a £150,000-a-year job as an adviser to JP Morgan, which involves 80-96 hours of work per year.
While keeping his seat in Parliament, former attorney general Geoffrey Cox started a new job at an international law firm, Withers LLP – boasting an annual salary of £468,000 a year. Reports suggest Mr Cox will help the company to “open doors with foreign governments”.
Overall, 237 MPs declared outside earnings during the 12 months since 23 March 2020. Together, this amounts to £4.9m of extra pay.
What galls above anything is that several MPs have seen their incomes rise as a direct result of the pandemic:
In July, when the government was under pressure to increase COVID testing, Conservative MP Alun Cairns accepted a job advising a science company involved in testing. The former Welsh secretary said he was offered the £15,000-a-year role at BBI Group because he knew the chairman.
Tory MP Richard Fuller was paid £65,000 moonlighting at a venture capital firm called Investcorp Securities Ltd. This included £30,000 for “consultancy work on the impact of COVID on portfolio companies”.
One of those “portfolio companies” is Cambio, a private health firm, which was handed a £63,000 NHS contract last week, without competition from other providers.
Former environment secretary Owen Paterson was paid £100,000 a year to act as a consultant to Randox Laboratories Ltd, at a rate of £120 an hour. On 30 March, the company was awarded a £133m COVID-testing contract by the government, without any other companies being allowed to bid for the work. Less than two weeks later, Paterson personally spoke to health minister Lord Bethell on a phone call with Randox.
Conservative MP Bill Wiggin was paid tens of thousands of pounds as the director of various offshore finance ventures, in the tax havens of Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. On top of a £49,140 salary, he has also received ‘director’s fees’ of more than £21,000 and £7,500 in bonuses in the past year.
Former cabinet minister George Freeman broke the ministerial code by failing to seek official approval before receiving £5,000 for consultancy work to a company producing protective equipment used by the NHS.
Meanwhile, the Conservative MP for Wokingham, John Redwood, banked £237,000 from wealth management firm Charles Stanley & Co, while his fellow backbencher Philip Davies was paid almost £50,000 by gambling giant GVC Holdings. GVC donated £1,500 worth of tickets to the Shipley MP for last year’s Cheltenham race meeting, which took place just days before Boris Johnson announced a national lockdown.
Last month, North Wiltshire MP James Gray was paid £550 by online media training provider Electric Airwaves “for helping train a potential witness coming before the public accounts committee”.
As the site points out all of these additional earnings are legal, and in some cases led to money being given to charity, but most second jobs are accepted as additional income. Nor was this activity restricted to Conservative MPs; members of the Labour Party and the SNP also declared additional earnings.
Open Democracy also reports that the money earned from moonlighting comes on top of the extra income that many politicians receive from renting out private properties. Some 116 MPs are currently registered as landlords, each earning at least £10,000 a year from rent.
There are no rules banning MPs from taking second jobs – and there are no set hours for parliamentary work. Surely, now we are in the twenty first century, that must change.
