MPs have been paid £10m from second jobs and freelance work over the past year, a total largely driven by the size of Boris Johnson's earnings as well as former Tory ministers taking up a series of highly paid roles, a Guardian analysis has found.
Almost 18 months after the furore over second jobs led to promises of a crackdown, MPs' earnings from work outside parliament have continued to rise.
The analysis looked at all MPs who made more than £1,000 in the past year, excluding income from completing surveys. Even stripping out Johnson's £4.8m, about 90 other Conservative MPs brought in approximately £4.75m - an increase from a 2021 total that was nearer to £4m. A much smaller number of Labour, SNP and Lib Dem MPs brought in outside income of just over £400,000.
Plans to cap MPs' income from second jobs were ditched months after the issue provoked a sleaze scandal that plunged Johnson's government into crisis. The promise of a clampdown followed the Owen Paterson lobbying scandal and a furore over Geoffrey Cox being paid nearly £6m as a lawyer since joining parliament, voting by proxy on days he was undertaking paid work.
The rise in incomes over the past year appears to have been partly driven by a minority of Conservative MPs taking on very highly paid work, from lucrative consultancies to well paid media gigs for the rightwing GB News channel, as well as Rupert Murdoch's TalkTV.
Some of the highest-paid MPs include the former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, who is paid about £29,000 a month to host a programme for GB News - which would make him about £350,000 in a year.
Bu hikaye The Guardian dergisinin August 07, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye The Guardian dergisinin August 07, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Post Office boss asked about his pay and bonuses 'more than expected', says board member
The chair of the Post Office's remuneration committee has said she was surprised at how frequently the company's boss, Nick Read, asked about his pay and bonuses, given the pressure it was under due to the ongoing fallout from the Horizon IT scandal.
Murdoch property group raises offer for Rightmove to £6.2bn as deadline looms
Britain's booming wine-growing industry has been compared to \"California in the 70s\", with annual production more than doubling to 12m bottles a year, according to a report.
Viral load Social media putting rare species in danger
With its striking plumage, impressive size and rowdy displays, a capercaillie is many birders' dream. Only about 530 of the woodland grouse survive in the wild, most in Scotland's Cairngorms national park.
Toll of 20 dead in storm-hit south-eastern US could rise as flooding hampers rescues
Hurricane Helene has reportedly killed at least 20 people and left 4m consumers without power across the south-eastern United States after crashing ashore in north-western Florida late on Thursday as a potent category 4 hurricane, according to officials.
Closing borders Electoral pressures put EU's freedom of movement under threat
In 2015, when more than 1.3 million people headed to Europe, mostly fleeing a brutal war in Syria, the response of Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, was to say: \"Wir schaffen das\" (\"We can manage this\"), and open the country's borders.
Fight does not end here, say critics, as Wimbledon wins the go-ahead to expand
Wimbledon's controversial plans to build 39 new tennis courts have been given the green light after a deputy mayor of London ruled that the \"very significant benefits\" of the scheme outweighed any potential harm to the environment.
Sue Gray Advisers to the PM are often targets of sniping but is it sustainable?
For someone who was not even in Liverpool for the Labour party conference, Sue Gray was the subject of a remarkable amount of conversation.
Revealed Alli gave PM a further £16,000 gift of clothing
Keir Starmer was given a further £16,000 worth of clothes by the Labour peer Waheed Alli, which was declared as money for his private office, the Guardian can reveal.
Tributes paid to 'one of a kind' in seven decades on stage and screen
Maggie Smith, the prolific, awardwinning actor described by peers as being \"one of a kind\" and possessed of a \"sharp eye, sharp wit and formidable talent\", has died aged 89.
Diplomacy Netanyahu insists Israel is winning on 'seven fronts'
Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, shrugged off global appeals for a ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza yesterday, using a defiant speech at the UN general assembly to denounce the world body as an \"antisemitic swamp\" and insist Israel is \"winning\" its multi-front wars.
