Tory MP voted remotely while earning £1m in the Caribbean
BORIS Johnson’s aides insist that MPs must make Parliament their “primary” focus following a Westminster outcry over second jobs.
Anger erupted yesterday after details were revealed of Tory MP Sir Geoffrey Cox’s £1million-plus earnings from legal work while in the Caribbean.
The backbencher and leading barrister took advantage of lockdown rules to cast votes in the Commons by proxy as he worked 4,000 miles from Westminster representing the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven accused of corruption.
MPs are allowed second jobs, but his lavish income on top of his £82,000 annual backbench salary threw the spotlight on MPs across the political divide, following the furore over former Cabinet minister Owen Paterson’s lobbying links while working as a consultant.
Downing Street officials yesterday rejected calls for a ban on second jobs for MPs. A spokesman for the Prime Minister said Mr Johnson believed an “MP’s primary job is and must be to serve their constituents and to represent their interests in Parliament”.
The spokesman said: “They should be visible in their constituencies and available to help constituents with their constituency matters.
“If they’re not doing that, they’re not doing their job and will rightly be judged on that by their constituents.”
He added: “The Prime Minister doesn’t back an outright ban on second jobs.”
Westminster “can and historically has” benefited from MPs having other roles, the spokesman said.
He said “outside experience, where this is reasonable and an MP’s parliamentary duties can still take priority” could help inform the House.
But the spokesman declined to be drawn on which professions were deemed acceptable.
“It’s incumbent on them (MPs) to be able to demonstrate to the electorate that they are working on their behalf.”
Officials also announced last night that ministers are to table a Commons motion to reverse a vote in favour of setting up a committee of MPs to review standards procedures.
Mr Johnson backed down on the proposal after opposition MPs refused to cooperate with his attempt to swiftly overhaul disciplinary procedures in response to a report concluding that Mr Paterson had breached lobbying rules.
The spokesman for the Prime Minister said: “We recognise the strong views on this particular point… we will table a motion for next week to formalise the change of approach by unpicking the amendment.”
Mr Paterson, who was furious at his treatment by Commons standards watchdogs, quit as an MP last week.
With the row continuing yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab was asked seven times by a BBC interviewer why Mr Johnson had not apologised for the botched attempt to change the standards rules.
He told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: “We’ve been clear, Steve Barclay was the responsible minister in the Commons yesterday, I’m clear now, and the whole government – all ministers are – that it was a mistake to conflate two issues, the individual case with the wider system and the due process that should be in place, and we regret that.” Pushed on whether Mr Johnson was sorry for conflating the two, he added: “Well, I don’t answer for or speak for the Prime Minister directly.”
Mr Raab said Sir Geoffrey’s work for the British Virgin Islands was a “legitimate thing to do as long as it is properly declared”.
Labour called for an urgent investigation into the former attorney general’s work for the tax haven.
In a letter to the PM, Labour Party chairwoman Anneliese Dodds wrote: “The irony is not lost on me that he arrived in the Caribbean on the day that those MPs who actually feel a sense of duty to their constituents were debating global anti-corruption standards.
“The people of Torridge and West Devon must be wondering if Geoffrey Cox is a Caribbean-based barrister or a Conservative MP.
“I can only assume that you didn’t know about this arrangement and were as shocked as everyone else to discover what Sir Geoffrey has been up to, because the alternative… would be a total dereliction of your duty as both leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister.”