Should MPs be allowed to have a ‘side hustle’?

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mjr

Active Member
Keeping up professional qualifications through CPD isn't a second job as such- it's maintaining professional standards to be able to remain registered to practise, eg medical/ law/ engineering. That is a good thing and demonstrates commitment and responsibility.
I think MPs should be allowed to continue their previous main job as part-time, or replace it with similar in order to be able to continue practising afterwards, not only in a regulated profession. But only one and only part-time, probably 0.25 or less.

Any more and you're heading for appearing on this board...

View: https://twitter.com/jdpoc/status/1458128702122962949
 
Geoffrey Cox QC is in the news today. TBH I'm struggling to see an issue other than time taken and impact on his constituency work.

That's a matter for his electorate. The SW (and his seat) were once LD territory.

It also seems that Keir Starmer did a bit of moonlighting in his first term as an MP:

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...gal-work-on-top-of-his-job-as-mp-records-show
 

Milkfloat

Active Member
Geoffrey Cox QC is in the news today. TBH I'm struggling to see an issue other than time taken and impact on his constituency work.

That's a matter for his electorate. The SW (and his seat) were once LD territory.

It also seems that Keir Starmer did a bit of moonlighting in his first term as an MP:

https://www.theguardian.com/politic...gal-work-on-top-of-his-job-as-mp-records-show
I think it is the fact that Geoff used his parliamentary office to conduct his briefing against the Foreign office.
 

mjr

Active Member
I think it is the fact that Geoff used his parliamentary office to conduct his briefing against the Foreign office.
Didn't he also square off against one of the newspapers while Attorney General? Was it Boris's friends The Telegraph? Maybe over super injunctions?
 

Venod

Serendipitous
The Geoff Cox issue is another case of the rules don't apply to me as far as I can see.

The following sentences are taken from a BBC article.

" Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Cox has said he did not break parliamentary rules by carrying out paid legal work in his House of Commons office"

"MPs cannot use public resources, including parliamentary offices, for "personal or financial benefit""

How many more of the publicly elected MP's are abusing the system ?
 

deptfordmarmoset

Über Member
The Cox gig seems to involve him taking money from the public purse and take more money to help fight against his own government and protect the BVI as a tax haven. In another world this would be treason.
 

glasgowcyclist

Über Member
The Geoff Cox issue is another case of the rules don't apply to me as far as I can see.

The following sentences are taken from a BBC article.

" Conservative MP Sir Geoffrey Cox has said he did not break parliamentary rules by carrying out paid legal work in his House of Commons office"

"MPs cannot use public resources, including parliamentary offices, for "personal or financial benefit""

How many more of the publicly elected MP's are abusing the system ?


And he's been letting out his home in Battersea (partly taxpayer funded) for £1,000 per week, while claiming £1,900 a month for a second home in the city. The system is set up as a gravy train and these shysters have no compunction in milking it for every penny.

Maybe we should have a separate thread for government corruption.
 
And he's been letting out his home in Battersea (partly taxpayer funded) for £1,000 per week, while claiming £1,900 a month for a second home in the city. The system is set up as a gravy train and these shysters have no compunction in milking it for every penny.

Maybe we should have a separate thread for government corruption.

Is there a link anywhere about how that works? I thought they could only have one home, either in London or the constituency, for which they could claim expenses?
 

glasgowcyclist

Über Member
Is there a link anywhere about how that works? I thought they could only have one home, either in London or the constituency, for which they could claim expenses?

I don't have a direct link to the rules but it's apparently allowed. According to this report in The National:

https://www.thenational.scot/news/n...ms-thousands-second-home-renting-london-flat/

As an MP with a constituency outside London, he is entitled to claim accommodation costs for staying in the capital.
According to his submissions to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) – which sets MPs’ pay and expenses – until 2017 he was claiming between £8,000 and £9,000 a year in “associated costs,” such as utility bills and service charges on a property he owned.
But from 2018 his claims rose to £22,000 a year after he moved into a rented property.
At the same time, his declaration in the Register of Members’ Interests showed that from November 2017 he was collecting more than £10,000 a year renting out a residential property in London.
According to the Mirror, the property is a flat in a plush mansion block in Battersea, where he had previously been living.
The arrangement is permitted under Ipsa rules. An Ipsa document in 2017 acknowledged that such arrangements could be controversial but advised against any change to the rules.
“We recognise that there can be a perception of personal gain if an MP receives rental income from their own property while living in an Ipsa-funded flat,” it said.
“However, our view has not changed that an MP’s personal financial situation is not a relevant ‘test’ for whether they should receive support from Ipsa.
“We do not want to judge an MP’s private arrangements and whether or not they should live in a property they own."
 

PK99

Regular
Worth remembering that you don't always need money to gain influence. Boris Johnson's wife Carrie seems to have plenty of influence despite being unelected, and I would think personal relationships and the Old Boy Network in general are in many ways as corruptive as having a second paymaster.

As did Cherrie Blair.
 

AuroraSaab

Legendary Member
Totally agree. She did. The influence that unelected individuals, and special interest lobbying groups, including charities, have on government policy behind the scenes is a whole other avenue of corruption in my opinion.
 

stowie

Active Member
The excuse often given over second jobs is that it enables MPs to be "more rounded" in their understanding of current issues rather than just stuck in the Westminster bubble. Therefore able to represent their constituency more effectively.

Strange how this "becoming more rounded" needs to involve jobs, say, paying hundreds of thousands of pounds and based in the BVI, rather than for example working shifts as a binman or Deliveroo driver.
 

theclaud

Reading around the chip
The excuse often given over second jobs is that it enables MPs to be "more rounded" in their understanding of current issues rather than just stuck in the Westminster bubble. Therefore able to represent their constituency more effectively.

Strange how this "becoming more rounded" needs to involve jobs, say, paying hundreds of thousands of pounds and based in the BVI, rather than for example working shifts as a binman or Deliveroo driver.
Indeed. Or volunteering at the local drop-in.
 
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