Fifth of MPs top up salary with 2nd job

ONE in five MPs holds down a second job on the side, the Westminster watchdog has revealed.

A total of 119 MPs have regular work paying an average of £28,000 on top of their £77,000 house of Commons salaries.

The Committee on Standards in Public Life warned that such outside interests risk undermining trust in Parliament.

The committee found that MPs set aside an average of 18-and-a-half hours a month to work on these outside interests.

Dozens more MPs earn vast sums from irregular work such as speaking engagements, appearing on TV and writing newspaper columns.

The committee demanded that Parliament’s code of conduct be rewritten to make it clear that MPs should only be allowed to take posts which do not ‘compromise their principal role as an MP’.

It said they should only take an outside position with hours within ‘reasonable limits’, although it did not spell out what this should be. It also recommended that MPs should be banned from working for lobbying firms.

The report said: ‘A majority of MPs do not hold remunerated outside interests, and a number hold outside interests that can be considered within “reasonable limits”. however, where a small number of individuals have taken up outside interests beyond what might be considered reasonable, it risks undermining trust in Parliament and Parliamentarians.’

The committee said former MPs should register new jobs which put them into contact with ministers. This is designed to tackle the revolving door scandal, where ex-MPs exploit their political contacts in private sector jobs.

however, the recommendations need to be passed by Parliament and could simply be rejected.

No MPs are named in the report, but an investigation earlier this year found that the highest paid was Nadhim Zahawi, the Tory MP for Stratford-on-Avon.

Mr Zahawi, who was chief strategy officer at Gulf Keystone Petroleum, reported outside earnings which were the equivalent of an annual salary of £765,000. he resigned in January after being made Minister for Children and Families.

The committee’s report found that 18.5 per cent of the 643 MPs have regular, paid outside commitments. In total, they earned £3.35million last year – an average of £28,000 each.