In the House of Commons on Wednesday, MPs voted 297 to nil in favour of the prime minister’s plans to alter the code of conduct to prohibit parliamentarians from working as paid advisors or consultants, after Labour abstained.
The plans also say that any second roles that parliamentary members take up are to be restricted to “reasonable limits” and not prevent MPs from serving their constituents properly.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the international trade secretary, suggested that paid outside work could be limited to fewer than 20 hours a week or between 10 and 15 hours as a reasonable limit, which would affect the likes of former attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, who has been carrying out legal work for the British Virgin Islands Inquiry alongside his parliamentary duties. Cox’s legal work sees him earn £400,000 per annum for 40 hours of work a month.
Following the vote, a government statement said that MPs had supported changes to their code of conduct and will “be banned from acting as paid political consultants or lobbyists” and ensured to be “always prioritising their constituents.”
The statement continued: “This will strengthen our parliamentary system and we will work on a cross-party basis to achieve this.”
Labour’s abstention came after it failed to pass a motion for the standards committee to draw up new rules by January 31, 2022, which would have prevented MPs from working as political consultants. The motion put forward by Sir Keir Starmer’s party was defeated by 51 votes.
Labour MPs then abstained from voting on the government’s plans, calling them a watered-down version of their own proposals.
The cross-party Commons Committee on Standards will now draw up the final details for the plans.
The move comes in the wake of the Owen Paterson scandal, with the now former Tory MP found to have broken parliamentary rules on lobbying.
The PM has been put under significant pressure by the ensuing sleaze row, and he told the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs that he had “crashed the car into the ditch” in his handling of the Paterson affair, conceding that it had been a “total mistake” to support him.
Under the proposed plans, The Guardian reports that analysis of the register of interests indicates fewer than ten MPs are likely to be affected by the changes, as they are currently worded.
Downing Street sources informed the news outlet that with the standards committee overseeing the drafting of the changes, it was impossible to gauge how many MPs could be affected at this time.
Some MPs who work as councillors, mayors and even ministers could be impacted unless the plans include exemptions for jobs considered to be political service.
The Commons Committee on Standards will put forward its recommendations in early 2022, and time will then need to be set aside for any planned alterations to be debated.
Photo taken from Wikimedia Commons
