Former minister’s lucrative second job deepens UK sleaze row

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday faced fresh accusations of sleaze among his ruling Conservatives, following a report that a party lawmaker earned more than £1 million in the last year from a second job. 

Geoffrey Cox, a lawyer and former attorney general, netted the lucrative sums for legal work while collecting his Tory MP annual salary of around £82,000 (R1.65 million), the Daily Mail said.

The additional pay, detailed in parliament’s register of interests, came in part from advising the government of the British Virgin Islands, a UK overseas territory and tax haven accused of corruption, it added.

Cox also utilised changes to parliamentary attendance rules brought in during the coronavirus pandemic to vote remotely in the House of Commons from the Caribbean while working there, the paper found.

His office did not respond to a request for comment.

The revelations intensify the pressure on Johnson, following days of criticism over sleaze and cronyism claims against his government which began with the botched handling of another Conservative lawmaker’s case. 

ALSO READ: UK accused of ‘staggering hypocrisy’ as political row stalks COP26

The UK leader prompted outrage last week when he tried to overhaul parliament’s internal disciplinary process, which would have prevented the 30-day suspension of Owen Paterson.

Paterson was found to have committed an “egregious” rules breach, after repeatedly lobbying ministers and officials for two companies paying him more than £100,000 a year.

Although Johnson swiftly abandoned the unprecedented overhaul attempts – prompting Paterson to resign from parliament – it threw the spotlight on a raft of allegations around MPs’ behaviour.

Johnson also drew renewed fire for skipping an emergency debate on Monday on the standards system regulating lawmakers, instead making a visit to a hospital in northeast England. 

Attention is now increasingly turning to the issue of MPs’ second jobs, with reports on Tuesday detailing at least 10 other Conservatives with outside work earning them more than £50,000 a year.

In a series of interviews, deputy prime minister Dominic Raab said there were already “strict rules about declarations and accountability” over second jobs.

Raab told Times Radio that Cox’s work in the British Virgin Islands “is a legitimate thing to do as long as it’s properly declared”.

“In terms of accountability, it will be up to voters to decide whether their MP representing them [has] got the right priorities and that’s the same for all of us,” he added to LBC radio.

“That’s the ultimate accountability we have in our democracy.”

NOW READ: UK Conservative MP David Amess stabbed to death