OPPOSITION COUNCILLORS TURN ON SIR GEOFFREY IN SECOND JOB ROW

DISTRICT councillors in Sir Geoffrey Cox MP’s constituency have reacted with disappointment over his second job which is earning a pretty penny.

After initial support from Conservative members on Tuesday, councillors in both Torridge and West Devon have been contacted as news broke that the MP earned hundreds of thousands from a second job which saw him vote in Parliament remotely from the

Caribbean. While his Conservative colleagues responded, saying they were backing their MP, other members of varying parties are not so sure.

Councillor Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin (Great Torrington, Lib Dem) said the £900,000 declared for legal work by Sir Geoffrey was “a ridiculous amount of money for anyone to earn”. She added: “Let alone someone who is already receiving £81,932 for being our MP.”

She went on to say: “Sadly, I’m not surprised by it, just disappointed in the voters who continually vote him back in.”

Peter Christie (Bideford North, Green Party) said: “In July, I wrote about how South West Water were paying a ‘special dividend’ of £3.5 billion to their shareholders even though they were still dumping sewage into our rivers and coastal waters during storms.

“Last week, a Parliamentary bill to stop this was voted down by MPs, including all South West Tory MPs, except one – our own Geoffrey Cox. He didn’t actually vote, though he did manage to find time to appear in court defending the Premier of the British Virgin Islands against a whole range of corruption charges.”

Steve Middleton, chair of Torridge and West Devon Lib Dems, said: “The people of Torridge and West Devon voted for a full-time MP, not a part time one.”