Westminster Accounts: what MPs earn from second jobs & donations.

[cupid_stunt]

Sky News and their partners have had 30 people working for 7 months to bring together all the MP's declared earnings and donations and pop it all in a database, which is now available for the public to easily search and find out what the buggers are up to. That's going to piss some of them off.

Westminster Accounts: MPs earn £17.1m on top of their salaries since the last election - with Tories taking £15.2m​

MPs have earned £17.1m on top of their salaries in this parliament, with around two-thirds of the money going to just 20 MPs.

As part of Westminster Accounts, a joint project between Sky News and Tortoise Media to shine a light on how money works in politics, we found the majority of the extra earnings went to Tory politicians - a total of £15.2m - while Labour MPs earned an additional £1.2m.

Some of it is eye watering...

Westminster Accounts: MPs earn £17.1m on top of their salaries since the last election - with Tories taking £15.2m

Since the end of 2019, millions of pounds of outside earnings have been made by a small group of largely Tory MPs. The Owen Paterson scandal last year prompted some rule changes, but questions have been raised about whether they go far enough.

news.sky.com

The tool is a bit slow, hit the link below, put in your postcode or MP's name, it takes a while to load a photo of them, then you need to hit 'skip to explore'.

Westminster Accounts: Search for your MP or enter your full postcode

Every year, millions of pounds pour into Westminster. Sky News and Tortoise Media present the Westminster Accounts - an open-source tool where you can search your MP, or the sources of that money.

news.sky.com

Peter Bottomley is my MP, he has no outside earnings, whereas the other side of Worthing, Tim Loughton has declared around £154,300 worth of payments and gifts since the last election.

 

[WouldBe]

£16.5k for Chesterfield's Toby Perkins.

 

[JimW]

Our local Tory blow-in was only about four grand, she's got a lot of greasy pole scrambling to do but fortunately is unlikely to get the time to do it.

 

[StoneRoad]

Not in the least bit surprised ...

 

[strung out]

Not in the least bit surprised ...

The only surprising thing is how many utter no-marks I've never heard of appear to be raking it in in that top 20.

 

[brogdale]

I'm coming round to the opinion that MPs should continue to be allowed to earn other income whilst incumbent, but that they only start to retain a single penny once they've earned enough to pay back all of their publicly funded MP's salary and expenses. That would really sort out the genuinely motivated from the fucking spivs.

 

[JimW]

Back in the day wasn't there a fight for paid politicos so it didn't remain the preserve of the wealthy? No objection to them getting a fair wage and keeping it, well, no objection beyond the general rottenness of the present set up.

 

[moochedit]

The site is very slow so i gave up reading it fully. My mp zara sultana earned about £24k from 5 sources one of which was liverpool football club which is a bit strange considering she's a brummie and represents a coventry seat

Still 24k is a lot better than many tory mp's.

 

[DotCommunist]

Back in the day wasn't there a fight for paid politicos so it didn't remain the preserve of the wealthy? No objection to them getting a fair wage and keeping it, well, no objection beyond the general rottenness of the present set up.

it was a chartist demand, that and no property qualification, annual elections etc.

 

[MickiQ]

£33K for mine

 

[SpookyFrank]

My MP took less than three grand, most of it from USDAW.

 

[hash tag]

Should an MP have a second earned income - no. They work for us. They fiddle expenses and tax as it is, "employing" family members to do admin or research. They often moan about how much work they do in how little time, no. Dorries and Hancock taking vast amounts of time out to enhance their celebrity profile. Others flying all over the place to give speeches which ignoring their constitutions and parliamentary business.
It's just a no.

 

[hash tag]

There was also this today if links above not too good

Tory MPs receive £15.2m from second jobs since 2019 election

Study shows income of Conservatives such as Theresa May and Boris Johnson dwarfs that of other parties

www.theguardian.com

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Would be interesting to know other incomes through investments and existing wealth. Sunak is surprisingly missing from the list.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Should an MP have a second earned income - no. They work for us.

i've got mixed feelings about this.

getting 'consultancy' work through being an MP - effectively becoming a paid lobbyist - definitely no.

things like journalism - questionable. i seem to remember that dennis skinner would not write articles for the press - he would be interviewed by a journalist (and have a feeling he'd only talk to ones who were members of NUJ or similar)

continuing their pre-MP job?

dunno. arguably could generate conflicts of interest (which seem to be much more strongly policed for local councillors than MPs)

having said that, an MP isn't necessarily a job for life, they stand for re-election every 5 years at least, so could get turfed out again, and what happens if they want to go back to their old line of work?

I think there's a few doctors (GP or hospital) among current or recent MPs - my knowledge of the medical world is minimal, but i have a feeling they need to keep practising (even if part time) to keep their qualifications up. would have thought that a doctor who'd been away from practice for 5 years is going to find themselves needing some time to get back to where they were.

and arguably an MP who is a part time doctor is going to be more in touch with the real world than one who doesn't set foot outside politics. not sure how easy it would be to rule what jobs were legitimate to be kept up.

 

[hash tag]

My neighbouring MP is Dr Rosina Allen-Khan (labour). She is a medical doctor who works in a local NHS hospital, especially during the pandemic. Working to keep her skills and qualifications up is fine.
I really think being an MP is a full time position and a second job must not be allowed to detract from that.
If someone gets £85,000 a year is it as an MP and £100,000 from a second job you wonder where their loyalties lie. Also, they can use their influence as an MP to the benefit of the other employer.

 

[hash tag]

There is a very important debate and vote tomorrow in parliament but I cannot attend because I've agreed to cover someone's shift at the hospital, got a pre-booked appointment to discuss someone's financial arrangements etc.
NO.

 

[two sheds]

I wonder whether 'donations' should be in inverted commas in the thread title - it suggests the 'donors' get nothing in return for their money.

 

[MickiQ]

I wonder whether 'donations' should be in inverted commas in the thread title - it suggests the 'donors' get nothing in return for their money.

I'm sure their motivations are the purest and it is only to further the cause of democracy

 

[two sheds]

The usual response from MPs is that it's good for them to retain the real-world experience. I'd agree with that, but apart from doctors and the like it's the being paid large amounts for it that I don't agree with. I'd be interested to see how many kept working for outside companies for the real-world experience if they weren't being paid for it or were only paid minimum wage.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Sky is running various reports based on this data over the course of the week, which makes for interesting reading/viewing.

Today they are focusing on donations.

Westminster Accounts: The biggest donors to MPs since the last election

The way the register of members' interests is published makes it tricky to tot up the total amounts donated to individual MPs from different donors. The Westminster Accounts changes that and allows you to see who the biggest donors have been so far during this parliament.

news.sky.com

Westminster Accounts: MPs accused of failing to give 'sufficient' transparency on major donations

Some MPs have declared thousands of pounds in donations from companies where the ultimate source of the funding is unclear, leading some to question whether existing transparency rules go far enough.

news.sky.com

This is from the second link -

MPM Connect Ltd is the third-biggest donor to MPs since the last general election. The only organisations that have given more to individual politicians in that period are the trade union giants Unite and GMB. The company has no staff or website and is registered at an office where the secretary says she has never heard of them.

The £345,217 of donations that MPM Connect has made since the end of 2019 went to three Labour politicians. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, has received £184,317, former mayor of South Yorkshire Dan Jarvis £100,000 and shadow health secretary Wes Streeting £60,900.

MPM Connect's entry in the Companies House register lists two directors - recruitment mogul Peter Hearn and Simon Murphy, the entrepreneur behind the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station. The company's accounts do not disclose where it receives its funding, what it does or why it donates so heavily.

When Sky News went to the office in Hertfordshire, where the company is registered, the receptionist in the building denied any knowledge of MPM Connect.

Another large donor where the public declarations leave ambiguity over the ultimate source of the funding is a little-known broadband provider from Blackburn.

IX Wireless has channelled more than £138,000 of campaign donations to Conservative MPs since 2019, despite only having two staff members, one of whom lives in the United Arab Emirates.

On a visit to the headquarters of IX Wireless, Sky News found the office empty with flooded floors. Standing outside the company's front door, Sky News called IX Wireless and spoke to someone who said they were a receptionist.

She confirmed that the address was correct, but would not say that she was inside the headquarters. After placing the call on hold for several minutes, she declined to answer any questions.

I guess this could be all legit, but...

 

[DotCommunist]

fred westalike Philip Hollobone has trousered a relatively frugal 8g. No mention of a Riyadh holiday funded by the saudi govt this year then.

 

[not-bono-ever]

Lots of companies use the accountants address for registration purposes. The accountants that specialise in this can have thousands of clients using their address for stuff. That in itself doesn’t mean anything but yeh

 

[Petcha]

Ahem. I work with Tortoise. The company who partnered with Sky to produce this report. We use them to book MPs and journalists to do virtual speaking/Q&A sessions with business leaders. Easily googleable as to who these people are but they range from Rishi, to Hancock, to Reeves, Streeting to well, everyone, they've all got their snouts out. We do one a month, Tory and Labour, journos like Maitliss too. Tortoise actually host them for us. We pay Tortoise, and the MPs in question. I won't put the list up here as it would identify I work for. But yeh. Everybody of note in the Commons, Lords. All facilitated by Tortoise.

I'm guessing they're not showing up on their own report as they're a third party.

This is fucking ridiculous, actually, looking at their site. We have their branding all over the invites we send out so this is weird.

Home - Tortoise

We're building a different type of newsroom: slower, wiser news without all the noise

www.tortoisemedia.com

 

[DotCommunist]

I'm reminded of clay davis's bottom line: 'ill take any motherfuckers money so long as he giving it away

 

[Orang Utan]

Fiona Bruce is on that list. I know the BBC are supposed to have a pro-Tory bias but I don’t think they’ve gone that far….

 

[cupid_stunt]

Fiona Bruce is on that list. I know the BBC are supposed to have a pro-Tory bias but I don’t think they’ve gone that far….

I noticed that, and actually checked to make sure they are different people.

 

[Orang Utan]

I noticed that, and actually checked to make sure they are different people.

Me too