This is clearly anti-Farage.
It set out its detailed thinking on how the rules could be tightened on MPs’ outside interests in evidence to the House of Commons standards committee.
The policy statement said it supported asking MPs to sign up to certain principles, as suggested by the parliamentary standards commissioner, Daniel Greenberg.
In particular it favours a draft principle saying: “Members are expected not to accept offers of paid outside interests that are made, or that a reasonable observer might think are being made, primarily because of their membership of the house.”
The government also said it had concerns about some instances in which MPs were paid by the media. Its submission said: “We are concerned with specific cases in which members might hold paid contracts of employment with media organisations that give rise to conflicts of interest and attention, both in the sense that the house is responsible for the laws governing our media and that such members would be monetising their offices for private gain. Such a practice can harm the reputation of the house, further eroding public confidence in our institutions.”
Analysis by the Guardian recently found six MPs had spent on average one working day a week on second jobs since the start of the 2024 parliament, with the Reform MPs Nigel Farage and Lee Anderson taking on lucrative jobs as presenters for GB News, as well as other work.
Now given how little I know about so many things I could be wrong here. But is MP actually an office? A Minister deffo is – and they can’t accpet any money at all. Write a newspaper column and the newspaper doesn’t pay a Minister, can or might an MP.
But the other thing. Clearly this is an act of attainder aimed at Nige. On the other hand he was a TV presenter before he was an MP therefore he’s not a TV presented because of his status as an MP. So, like so much p9oliticas, this doesn’t actually acheved ther intended aim, does it?
Do directorships or consultancies count ?
There are plenty of MPs to target with those jobs.
Sigh. If the Left didn’t have double standards etc…
So, Austin Mitchell, Roy Hattersley, Michael Foot, Brian Walden, should all have been banned from their media work?
The lefties should remember they won’t be in power forever, and that their own tactics can be used against them. All those MPs paid by a union?
“Such a practice can harm the reputation of the house, further eroding public confidence in our institutions.””
I think if you look in the stable you’ll find that horse is long gone.
All parties undermined the system over the years – it was supposed to be transparency and let the voters decide but has slowly been eroded to ‘if its declared its ok’ and the details in the declaration rather reduced. Tim Yeo was the master of the art in my day. It is still why the lack of declaration is punished not any activity itself. The focus on media is telling – the arguments on monetising and conflict of interest would cover all regulated activities – legal, charity, books, union work etc etc. Very much double standards.
The lefties should remember they won’t be in power forever, and that their own tactics can be used against them.
They never do learn that lesson. Trump is giving them their own medicine good and hard and there isn’t a shred of self reflection. The latest meltdown over federal funding of universities is a case in point. Its evil of Trump to use funding to get the universities to do his political bidding, completely ignoring how Obama used the same tactic to extend Title IX to persecute young men who had been accused of sexual misconduct, for example.
“The lefties should remember they won’t be in power forever, and that their own tactics can be used against them.”
The assisted dying crap is the glaring example of their own stupidity. TTK undoubtedly aims to carry out his Blair mission to its gory conclusion, leaving the UK a tattered remnant of a nation back in the EU with the added bonus of a blasphemy law in place to satisfy his very close friend. The choice facing voters will be between the Labour Party, whatever Sir Ed calls his looney party and the Islamist Truth. Farage and friends having contracted the rare Tropical Toenail which caused such agony and an allergy against chicken nuggets which several High Court judges certified that they desired their lives be ended as it was no longer possible to bear the burden of continuing to breathe. Even so, his chances of him being PM are probably over and if he fails in his mission to raise the Muslim population sufficiently his close friend may not get it either. But any bloke whose sex life is so varied that the occasional HIV test is needed should be wary of assisted dying being an option.
any bloke whose sex life is so varied that the occasional HIV test is needed
Say what now?
“But is MP actually an office?”
It’s illegal to sit as an MP while holding an office of profit under the Crown, because having the people who determine taxation being paid out of taxation creates a conflict of interest. So when they started paying themselves, they chose to interpret it as not being one. And yet they also want to consider it a “job”, going around talking about Members who work outside the chamber having “second” jobs.
They can’t have it both ways.
My interpretation of this is part envy (the bastards being paid more than us), part being brainwashed into thinking that the private sector can create conflicts of interest but the public cannot. Whereas in reality the largest conflict of interest is from the public sector. They genuinely believe that it is more honorable to be employed in the public sector (or an NGO or possible the Guardian) than being successful in the private sector.
I have a very simple but yet unfortunately not politically possible solution to this which is that people that work for the public sector should not be allowed to vote or stand for public office. The slightly more complex solution would involve tiered voting where your vote counts less (possibly 0) if you have been a net receiver of public funds (including salaries, benefits, etc) during the past x years.
We do need to do something about this as the mentality is parasitic
I’m not against MPs having some outside business interests, but being an MP should be their main job, that they spend the overwhelming part of their professional efforts on. If the MP is a doctor or a dentist it could be useful for them to keep their hand in, if they are a lawyer and it doesn’t conflict with their role as law maker then perhaps… But some MPs appear to treat being an MP as a side gig of token value.
And yes, I think this probably is aimed at Farage (although not solely him), his track record suggests the day to day work required from a serious elected politician is not for him, being an MP is a minor sideline to a large number of more lucrative gigs. It’s not a new criticism that he has no appetite for the day to day workload of the positions he has sought election to. It was frequently pointed when he was an MEP he avoided engagement with the day to day work on the issues he loudly professed a concern with. In the dim and distance past MPs may have been enfrachised gentlemen of independent means who were mostly amateur dabblers in politics, but in the modern world it is a job that requires some effort to gain (even in a safe seat you need to get selected) and one that has a reasonable total remuneration package.
But on the other hand if the electorate knowingly elect someone who is unshamedly a grifter then they have to tolerate a grifter’s gonna grift!
@Marius: I assume that was a dig at TTK, who very publicly had an AIDS test a while back, as part of some PR for AIDS testing week. The conspiracy theory being that it was a way for him to have one without having it done privately, and thus risking someone finding out and telling everyone. Hide in plain sight in other words.
So, what are the duties of a backbench MP? We think we know, but in fact there are none. They don’t have to speak in parliament, they don’t have to represent the views of their constituents (as far as I understand the writings of that berk whose name I’ve forgotten), they have a staff to write anodyne replies to constituenyts woes.
And how does a minister do the MP job while being a minister? If they can do two jobs in that case, they can do two or more outside jobs.
Upshot being it’s an unspecified role and there is no one way to do it, and it’s up to the electors in Clacton and no-one else to decide whether Nigel can do it for them.
You’ve got to love how Sir Keir now believes trans women are men tho.
What a sinuous man.
He’s a lawyer. Professionaly trained to have no opinion of his own, and to recite the words his owner has paid for.
TtC, as if. A major source of our modern problems is lawyers with opinions, trying to legislate their preferred world into existence. TTK has opinions all right but political triangulation for personal gain comes first, and in contrast with Blair he’s rather poor at it.
The Coder Whom Some Call… Tim – I was interested in how the patron saint of lawyers, Ivo of Kermartin, died and if it was by particularly horrible means. For research purposes.
Died peacefully of natural causes in old age, according to Wikipedia.
No help there then. *shrug*
Normandy Landings: TTK has opinions all right but political triangulation for personal gain comes first, and in contrast with Blair he’s rather poor at it.
The Which Blair Project.
God, I’m old.
I feel lawyers are similar to economists.
Lawyers know all about the law but nothing about justice, economists know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.
re Farage and MP’s jobs there is something of a systemic UK problem especially for new parties. You have to have MPs who are going to form your government and be party leaders/spokespersons. An MPs role is not especially a good selector for higher roles – regulation and representation basically . That’s not per se obviously a good pathway for leaders and managers of the public estate,
Entrenched parties can get away with a number of shadows and Ministers via the Lords but for new parties that’s much harder.