MPs PAY FROM SECOND JOBS

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A survey has uncovered the outside interests of dozens of MPs who hold down paid positions, ranging from legal and media work to crofting, and even grave digging. One earns £750 an hour for helping to organise an awards ceremony for the drinks industry, while another is paid more than £1,300 a day to provide business advice.

Among the highest earners is Nick Raynsford, the former housing minister, who collected £148,000 from six private-sector jobs last year, mostly connected to housing, and John Hemming, the Lib Dem MP, who receives more than £200,000 a year from his computer software company.

The findings come ahead of the introduction of new rules that will require all MPs to declare exactly how much they earn from their second jobs, the number of hours they devote to them and the nature of the work.

The details are expected to embarrass some of the highest earners. Senior MPs in both main parties have already announced that they will give up lucrative posts, including William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, and Ian McCartney, the former Labour party chairman.

John Bercow, the new Speaker of the House of Commons, was paid £40,000 by a health care firm that runs a number of special needs schools after he wrote a government report that led to an increase in special needs funding.

While many at Westminster argue that allowing MPs to hold down outside employment helps attract high-calibre individuals into politics and keeps parliamentarians in touch with industry, the disclosure that some work long hours for private companies is likely to bring accusations that they are effectively “part-timers”.

Under current rules, MPs must name all their outside employers and directorships in the Register of Members’ Interests, but they are not required to state the hours they work.

In some cases, they do not state their earnings. When they do, they give approximate salary bands rather than precise figures. Where salaries are not shown in the register they have sometimes been stated in annual company reports. In many cases, they have remained secret.

When the Government announced the change in the rules to force the disclosure of second-job incomes, the Tories saw the move as an attempt to portray them as a party of millionaires.

However, senior Conservatives have been quicker than Labour MPs to announce that they are giving up outside employment.

Robert Goodwill, the Tory shadow transport minister and MP for Scarborough and Whitby, runs a cemetery on his farm and said that he occasionally digs graves. He said his businesses would make a loss this year.

Paul Keetch, the Lib Dem MP for Hereford, charges £48,000 through a company he owns for around 36 days’ work a year advising an insurance broker and a tent supplier; the fee works out at £1,300 a day. John Thurso, the Lib Dem MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, earns £7,500 a year for helping to organise the International Wine and Spirit Competition. The work takes 10 hours.

Matthew Elliott, the chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said, “There is no problem, in itself, with MPs having outside interests, as they can allow politicians to have contact with the outside world. 'But there is clear potential for conflict of interests and there is a whiff of suspicion when their outside interest is linked to their policy area.’’

Mr Hague, who earned around £230,000 last year from after dinner speeches, advice to private companies and writing books, is to step down from several posts by the autumn.

Other senior Tories who are resigning from their outside positions include Oliver Letwin, the party’s policy chief, who earns a £60,000 salary for working eight hours a week at NM Rothschild, the investment bank, and David Willetts, the shadow skills secretary, who is paid £80,000 a year to advise a pension company.

More than half of MPs with outside interests are Conservative. Despite the fact that they will have to publish the full details from this week onwards, and that David Cameron, the party leader, has called for greater transparency in MPs’ activities, Tory MPs were sent an email by their party’s whips telling them not to take part in this newspaper’s survey. However, many ignored the order.

Meanwhile, Alan Milburn, the former health secretary, announced that he was standing down from parliament at the next election, just days before the new disclosure rules on second jobs come in. Mr Milburn, 51, is expected to be shown to be one of Labour’s highest earners. He is known to earn at least £115,000 a year from five outside employers.

David Maclean, the former Tory Chief Whip, who has multiple sclerosis, also announced he would stand down at the next election. He opposed exposure of MPs’ expenses details. (Source: Daily Telegraph, Jun/09)

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