Geoffrey Cox

No issue with him earning lots of money. I have BIG earners in my family, as long as they pay correct tax.

This man has chosen to put himself up to election, to become an MP, to serve his Constituents. And he has NOT been doing that, he has NOT been in his Constituency for them, and he has broken rules on use of office, etc, and he has been working to protect massive tax evasion, working against his own Government, and his own Consituents and the services tax provide for them and the country.

THAT is what I am objecting to. If you can't see te difference, then what can I say!!!

I believe the Labour Party don’t allow second jobs? Wasn’t that mentioned upthread? What behaviour on the part of Cox are you talking about? Earning a lot of money? How very distasteful. But as I explained in my last post nothing like what he could have earned if he hadn’t been giving priority to his constituents and his parliamentary work. Do you know how much a QC with his specialisation can expect to earn in a year?

Germanshepherdsmum

Dinahmo QCs command very high fees. Starmer is a QC.

Yes, but he has suspended his Licence in order to serve his Constituents and the Party 100%. A massive difference.

How anyone can condone Cox's behaviour is unfathomable!

FGS Gill nobody is being forced to downsize. A clever little segue eh?

Er, don’t you think he was advancing an argument on behalf of his client rather than giving his own opinion Dinahmo? Though how prescient his words about the effect of a minor infraction (participating in a video conference in his parliamentary office between parliamentary duties rather than taking time out and going to chambers) turned out to be.
How convenient for some that he had to be in the BVI to do the work he was paid for. Gives an excuse to imply he was having a nice holiday.
And how many MPs take part in every vote please?
I’m amazed that as a QC with his specialisation he has only earned some £6m in 16 years. That’s actually very low. Might it be because as an MP and then Attorney General and heavily involved in the Brexit negotiations the amount of work he was able to take on was very restricted? That priority was given to his public duties?

Alegrias1

David Lammy doesn't get anything like £23k a speech.

Is that thread still going about believing everything you're told?

Yes I believe that thread is still live. You can find it beneath the thread about pensioners being forced to downsize.

David Lammy doesn't get anything like £23k a speech.

Is that thread still going about believing everything you're told?

MaizieD

lemongrove

This whole thread is about Cox.
Therefore I comment on him.

Well, it would be nice if you could comment in line with the topic of this thread, which is 'should MPs be able to do what Cox has done? Like, how appropriate is it and how compatible is it with being an MP?

Sigh!
I already have done.

With regard to David Lammy, I doubt that he spends several hours per week preparing his speeches. If they're on the same or similar topics he'll be able to recycle them. If people want to pay that kind of money to listen to a politician, then good luck to him.

G Cox has earned more than £6million from outside work since becoming an MP in 2005. He has missed 12 votes in parliament during his recent stint in the Virgin Islands.

I doubt if his constituents were aware of the extent of his outside work until recently and it will be interesting to see what they do about him.

The following is a quote from the British VI inquiry back in June

The BVI inquiry videos show that Cox made arguments against “open registers” for politicians’ interests at the public inquiry in June.

He told the inquiry: “Let me be quite candid. There are real drawbacks to open registers. It becomes a political tool for every … many, many, frivolous complaints are made. It is a profound invasion into a legislator’s private life, because what happens is, as you can imagine, stories get written, minor infractions are written up to be morally shameful or even impute dishonesty.”

Cox is also facing a conflict of interest claim after it emerged that he had lobbied against imposing tougher financial regulations on the Cayman Islands just months after he gained more than £40,000 from legal firms based in the tax haven.

And no, I'm not envious.

MaizieD

From The Metro:

Most of the highest paid '2nd job' MPs are tories

Nearly all the MPs who work in 'consultancy' or 'advisory' roles (i.e. those most likely to lead to improper lobbying) are tories. One Lib Dem, Ed Davey, has a modestly paid consultancy role.

It does make one wonder at some MPs' motives for entering politics. Is it to serve constituents or is it to serve the industry they're aligned with?

metro.co.uk/2021/11/08/the-30-mps-who-rake-in-thousands-with-second-jobs-as-consultants-15561454/

For 'balance' , the Daily Mail is trying to slam David Lammy for earning £141,000 for something like 6 or 7 speaking jobs over the course of 3 years... (He's a barrister, too) Of course, that's directly comparable with a tory MP earning £1million in one year and spending 2 or 3 months in the Caribbean while earning it...

It's a crazy world...

Lammy is not a QC, so won’t earn a high amount, still 23 grand a speech is not to be sniffed at, but he is still earning outside his role as an MP. I don’t agree with Cox defending one country that is being sued by his own though, very odd.

lemongrove

This whole thread is about Cox.
Therefore I comment on him.

Well, it would be nice if you could comment in line with the topic of this thread, which is 'should MPs be able to do what Cox has done? Like, how appropriate is it and how compatible is it with being an MP?

This whole thread is about Cox.
Therefore I comment on him.

lemongrove

It all turns on whether Cox has broken any rules. If he has, then he must expect consequences.
As to how much he has earned, it’s irrelevant.Unless rules on second jobs are changed then it’s entirely legal and above board for any MP to have one.There aren’t ‘set hours’ for constituency and Parliamentary work.Whether there should be is another matter.

Nobody is claiming that he has broken any rules, lemon. That was Paterson. He's a completely different kettle of fish.

It all turns on whether Cox has broken any rules. If he has, then he must expect consequences.
As to how much he has earned, it’s irrelevant.Unless rules on second jobs are changed then it’s entirely legal and above board for any MP to have one.There aren’t ‘set hours’ for constituency and Parliamentary work.Whether there should be is another matter.

Tory MP Geoffrey Cox took a £3,900 taxpayer LOAN to pay for deposit on London flat he rents on expenses... while he leases out his own property 'for £1,000 a week' - amid claims he has been in MAURITIUS during the furore. Daily Mail today.

It just get worse.

If anyone wants cheering up in all this, take a look at Pete Wishart's declarations.

A few thousand pounds worth of royalties from when he was the drummer with Runrig .

Or Phillipa Whitford's. Nil.

I met her once paddyann54. She's very impressive.

lemongrove

I don’t think Cox has broken any rules, but perhaps looking again at what a lot of MP’s on all sides of the house do as regards to jobs, needs overhauling asap.

It looks as though 'MPs on all sides of the house' is a bit of a sweeping statement which implies that it is commonly done in all the Parties.

This, from the Labour List newsletter but which can be checked in the MPs register of Interests if people want to verify it:

The parliamentary register of interests show that 90 out of 360 Conservative MPs have extra jobs, compared with just three from the Labour Party.

www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/standards-and-financial-interests/parliamentary-commissioner-for-standards/registers-of-interests/register-of-members-financial-interests/

Interesting letter in todays Times suggesting that health department ministers work once a week as hospital porters, Home Office ministers should pound the beat and the former attorney general could do pro bono work.This would give them insight, it would also help some of them to keep their hand in.

this

From The Metro:

Most of the highest paid '2nd job' MPs are tories

Nearly all the MPs who work in 'consultancy' or 'advisory' roles (i.e. those most likely to lead to improper lobbying) are tories. One Lib Dem, Ed Davey, has a modestly paid consultancy role.

It does make one wonder at some MPs' motives for entering politics. Is it to serve constituents or is it to serve the industry they're aligned with?

metro.co.uk/2021/11/08/the-30-mps-who-rake-in-thousands-with-second-jobs-as-consultants-15561454/

For 'balance' , the Daily Mail is trying to slam David Lammy for earning £141,000 for something like 6 or 7 speaking jobs over the course of 3 years... (He's a barrister, too) Of course, that's directly comparable with a tory MP earning £1million in one year and spending 2 or 3 months in the Caribbean while earning it...

It's a crazy world...

I remember a massive outcry in the media when Phillipa Whitford got paid by the NHS for doing CANCER operations during her Christmas break .She has to do a limited number of hours a year to keep her license to practice .That payment was shocking and she was vilified in the press and on TV .I can guarantee the people she operated on were very gratefulmsitting in the Caribbean is a very different thing ,but not to the media .There has to be rules and where, like Phillipa , the extra job is essential to keeping a professional license thats fine .Greed is not essential though to this Tory government is appears to be the norm!

lemongrove

I don’t think Cox has broken any rules, but perhaps looking again at what a lot of MP’s on all sides of the house do as regards to jobs, needs overhauling asap.

The difference needs to be defined between working at one's career, maybe running a family business or whatever, and being a paid lobbyist/director of a company with a vested interest in having someone inside, so to speak. Maybe simple timing is the answer? Nobody wants to offer me any directorships at present, but should I be elected to the house and then found myself as a minister in the Dept of Health and a local PPE supplier were to then employ me, surely that should be forbidden? Simplistic example, but hopefully illustrates my point. On a lighter note, just what kind of fool employs Grayling and pays him £100k? Maybe it is espionage by a competitor?

I don’t think Cox has broken any rules, but perhaps looking again at what a lot of MP’s on all sides of the house do as regards to jobs, needs overhauling asap.

Katie59

There are plenty of lawyers in parliament including Starmer and there is nothing wrong with them having another job, what matters is wether they give proper attention to their constituency.

With other jobs though, are they really giving their full attention to their constituency?
I would prefer their pay to be upped and no other jobs allowed....bar working for the NHS or lawyers doing pro bono work.

Thanks Varian, a very interesting article. I see the whole "using his office" as a bit like Al Capone, the police couldn't get him, the FBI couldn't get him, the tax man got him. Sometimes the "tax man" route is the sheriff in this sort of situation.

Breaking rules is interesting, I mean some things seem so obvious you don't think you need a rule, I never felt the need to tell my children not to swear at granny as it would never occur to me that they would. If they did I wouldn't have accepted "but there was no rule stopping us" as a reasonable defense.