Boris Johnson’s government signalled that it wanted to bring in “reasonable” restrictions on MPs taking on second jobs more than 18 months ago.
Fast-forward to the present day and the former prime minister has benefited significantly from his failure to impose limits on amounts made or hours worked.
Johnson, who is no longer an MP, spent his final nine months in parliament making almost £5m from speeches and book advances, spending much of his time jetting around the globe while doing so.
While some MPs gave up well-paid consultancy work in 2021 after the furore around Owen Paterson’s lobbying on behalf of a company that paid him, others have begun building up portfolio careers again in the past 12 months.
A new code of conduct for MPs bans them from giving paid parliamentary advice in the course of their consultancy work.
However, very few MPs had been describing their consultancy work as “parliamentary” advice. Since the rules came into force, only one MP appears to have shifted their job title from being a parliamentary adviser to a public policy adviser for the same employer.
The total made by MPs – more than £10m in the past year – adds to the impression that little has changed.
Campaigners are highlighting the fact that Conservative MPs in particular may have an eye on maximising their earnings potential in the final year before an election in which they may lose their seats or stand down.
Six months ago, a video showed the former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng among a small band of MPs who in theory agreed to work for £10,000 a day to further the interests of a fake South Korean company, after apparently being duped by the campaign group Led By Donkeys. Nothing was agreed and Kwarteng only attended a preliminary meeting, but the episode again put MPs’ apparent willingness to be hired to promote the interests of companies under the spotlight.
With a trio of former prime ministers making six-figure sums on the speaking circuit and a group of ex-cabinet ministers becoming highly paid presenters for rightwing news channels funded by billionaires, as well as the usual portfolios of consultancies, the pursuit of making money outside politics is becoming more normalised for MPs.
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But there is also a chance that any MPs seen to be neglecting their constituents may be punished by the electorate at a time of already low trust in politics and standards in Westminster. One of the key arguments of the government for not putting limits on second jobs was that voters were free to decide at the ballot box whether they approved of their MP or not.
Opinion polls suggest that just over half of the public would be on the side of banning outside earnings by MPs altogether. A report last month on “democratic backsliding” by the Unlock Democracy campaign group said in the foreword: “People look at our politics and they are not impressed. When MPs are seen to pursue lucrative second jobs and consultancy roles, it looks like they’re taking their constituents for granted.”
Only the election will tell whether it matters enough to the public to vote out MPs spending so much time in their City offices or on our television screens rather than in parliament.
