Have MPs forgotten the Code of Conduct?

Wednesday 17th November 2021 05:16 EST
 

The code of conduct for MPs prohibits: Paid lobbying (attempts to alter policy) of government or other public bodies; The use of "public resources", including parliamentary premises, for work not carried out as an MP or minister MPs must also declare: Any "relevant" outside interests when speaking in debates or taking part in other parliamentary activities; Individual payments of more than £100 from an outside source; and Gifts totalling £300 or more from a single source in the course of a year.

Yet, an analysis of the MPs’ register has revealed more than a quarter of Tory MPs have second jobs, worth more than £4m a year. The interests they represent include the gambling industry, global investments firms and the energy sector. The register of MPs’ interests shows that more than 90 out of 360 Tories have extra jobs on top of their work in parliament, compared with three from Labour. They are overwhelmingly older and 86% are men. The highest earners were all former cabinet ministers. T

he names include veteran backbencher Owen Paterson who was on paid over £100,000 a year, Andrew Mitchell, the MP for Sutton Coldfield, is the highest earner, who made £182,600 for 34.5 days work in a variety of financial advisory roles, with firms including Investec and EY. Geoffrey Cox, the former attorney general, is making around £1m a year as a barrister among others. Boris Johnson is facing calls for a review of MPs’ outside interests and a ban on consultancies linked to politics after a public backlash over the extra earnings of many politicians. “I genuinely believe that the UK is not remotely a corrupt country,” the UK PM said.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak reacted and said, “We must do better over MP standards.” In the light of the current events, an opinion piece in The Times mentioned, “Many parliamentary scandals of recent decades — cash for questions, the expenses scandal — have concerned behaviour that was within the rules set by MPs. Each has forced changes, and more are now needed. The days of MPs taking roles as political consultants, strategists or advisers to businesses or trade bodies must be over.”


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