MPs to be banned from some second jobs

Members of parliament are to be banned from taking second jobs that involve advising companies on political strategy or parliamentary procedure. MPs will also be barred from promoting any company or organisation from which they have received hospitality or paid employment during their parliamentary work. But the proposals will not limit MPs’ outside earnings, so long as that income is unrelated to their work as an MP. This would allow a member such as Sir Geoffrey Cox to continue as a barrister. The former Tory attorney-general earned more than £950,000 last year. The changes are included in a report by the Commons standards committee published today that is to be adopted by MPs before the end of summer. It comes after the outcry over the disclosure that Owen Paterson, the former Tory Northern Ireland and environment secretary, lobbied ministers on behalf of two companies for which he was employed as a consultant. An investigation by the Guardian last November found that a quarter of Conservative MPs held second jobs. The Times (£) The Guardian