12:01am Thursday 2nd July 2009
By Howard Dawber
After the second homes scandal, the spotlight fell this week onto MPs with second jobs. From today, July 1, MPs will have to declare who they have been working for and how much they have been paid.
I would go a lot further than this. We pay our MPs £64,000 a year to represent us. We pay extra money to help them do this by employing secretaries, researchers and caseworkers.
Being an MP should be a full-time job. In fact, if you do it right, it is probably much more than a full-time job because you would work weekends and holidays, too.
So to see certain MPs claiming that their lucrative second jobs "advising" various companies in boardrooms actually helped them be better public representatives was galling to me.
Let me be straight. I spent 10 years as a public affairs consultant working with various companies, local councils and charities, helping advise them on campaigning.
I have worked with several companies who had MPs on the payroll. So I know what these MPs are doing.
They turn up for the occasional meeting, spout off something about what is going on in Parliament, have half a bottle of wine and then go off again. Very, very few of them are employed because of their specialist knowledge of a subject.
Take Ken Clarke, for example. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer and is now Shadow Business Secretary. But his career before parliament was as a lawyer. He is on the board of several companies because they think he can provide useful input based on his political experience. He is selling the fact he is an MP.
To me that's cash for access. It's much more serious in his case because he has a direct input into the policy making of a political party which is hoping to be in government in less than a year.
And his colleague Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley claimed that his second job as a Non-executive director for marketing agency Profero, for which he is paid £25,000 a year for 12 days work, was helping him be a better MP.
His argument is that 12 meetings in a boardroom in London helping give the inside track to a company who do health promotion campaigns for the NHS keeps him in touch with the real world.
What a load of rubbish.
If he wanted to keep in touch with the real world, let me suggest some roles for which he could earn £25k a year. Checkout Supervisor at Tesco. Senior Nurse. Teacher. Social Worker. Elderly Care Centre Supervisor.
The problem is he isn't qualified for any of those real jobs. And also they wouldn't let him turn up for just 12 meetings in return for a year's salary.
The fact is, Mr Lansley, that your little bit on the side which pays you £25k actually makes you LESS in touch with the real world.
And if you really thought it made you a better parliamentarian and potential minister, here's a suggestion.
DO IT FOR NOTHING.
I think all MPs - and there are some Labour ones who are just as bad, I am sorry to say - should give up their outside paid jobs completely from the next election. Everyone who stands next time should be made aware that the rules have changed.
People have a right to expect their MPs to be working full time for their constituents - not using their position as a ticket to a string of consultancies.
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