“Wages are rising!” Rishi Sunak declared that ‘Wages are rising!’ in his Budget speech, which made numerous mentions of Boris Johnson’s new ‘high wage economy’.

Geoffrey Cox, QC, a fellow Tory, is doing more to show the point.

The MP has more than doubled his annual extra-parliamentary earnings – from £464,540 in 2017-2018 to £1,038,835 in the past 12 months.

Sir Geoffrey Cox QC has more than doubled his annual extra-parliamentary earnings ¿ from £464,540 in 2017-2018 to £1,038,835 in the past 12 months

Sir Geoffrey Cox QC has more than doubled his annual extra-parliamentary earnings – from £464,540 in 2017-2018 to £1,038,835 in the past 12 months

These legal fees are, of course, on top of his £81,932 parliamentary salary. 

In between this period, the silk fitted in an 18-month stint as Attorney General, which naturally was not linked at all to the decision by City law firm Withers to hire him on a £468,000 annual retainer for 48 hours a month (with the agreement of the ever-effective parliamentary appointments watchdog).

According to the barrister, MPs should have had experience in the world of work. But only a tiny elite can command £800 per hour. 

Clearly crime does pay, but the MP for Torridge & West Devon is not a noticeable presence in Parliament, which his constituents might understandably regard his main workplace. 

One Tory MP, when asked about Sir Huge’s heroic efforts to create high-wage economies, said that he had not seen him in the Chamber since ages.

Sir Peter Bottomley, Father-of-the House Tory MP, raised eyebrows earlier this month by suggesting that MP salaries be increased because many people are struggling at the current level.

He’s absolutely right, salaries should go up, but only if the questionable – yet officially sanctioned – gravy train of second jobs is banned first. 

It is patently unfair to claim that backbenchers like Siobhan Bailey and Tories Stuart Anderson or Labour’s Margaret Beckett or Clive Betts exist purely on their MP salary, according their declarations, while Sir Geoffrey keeps his million-a-year side business, completely within the rules.

Maybe even under-fire Tory MP Owen Paterson would have avoided watchdog criticism last week and likely suspension for lobbying if he hadn’t been on someone else’s £112,000-a-year payroll.

The ethical firm the Sussexes have partnered with, Ethic, owns shares in £72 billion Indian technology giant Infosys

The ethical firm the Sussexes have partnered with, Ethic, owns shares in £72 billion Indian technology giant Infosys

Sussexes’ ethical community

Ethic, the ethical investment firm that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have partnered with, owns shares in Infosys, the £72 billion Indian technology giant linked to Rishi Sunak and his wife. 

Infosys was co-founded by the Chancellor’s father-in-law, NR Narayana Murthy, and Rishi’s wife Akshata Murthy owns a 0.91 per cent stake in the firm, worth £430 million – making her one of the wealthiest women in Britain or, as red-top tabloids would have it, ‘richer than the Queen’. 

It would not surprise if Harry or Meghan included the Sunaks in their Christmas card collection. 

Last week Times columnist Clare Foges, who has an OBE, said tha it's time for a 'clean-up of the honours system to dispel the bad smell'

Clare Foges (OBE), a Times columnist, stated last week that it was time for a clean-up of honours systems to dispel the bad odor’

Gordon Brown was the City’s best friend. 

Now it seems Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves is following suit after registering £50,000 in donations from Victor Blank, the former chairman of Lloyds TSB, whose acquisition of HBOS as British banks teetered on the verge of collapse during the financial crisis, was backed by then PM Brown. 

Between 2012 and 2015, Blank donated £170,000 to Labour, then closed his chequebook during the Corbyn era until the return of Sir Keir’s New Labour.

Speaking of changing the system… it was hard not to raise an eyebrow at Times columnist Clare Foges saying last week that it’s time for a ‘clean-up of the honours system to dispel the bad smell’. 

Foges, David Cameron’s former speechwriter was awarded an OBE along with his spin doctors, and his barber.

Although she was ‘delighted’ to spend the day at Buckingham Palace, she feels her honor was not due and uses it only for Yanks. 

She now calls for a ban on political appointments (no more lists starting at No 10) and wants to transform the OBE into an Order of British Excellence.

Clare, dear, you could always have turned it down – or give it back now, as John Lennon did with his MBE. 

No matter how earnest she or other political appointees might write, the honours system won’t change while it appears like their principles are easily bought for baubles.