A Tory MP is being paid £30,000 for just 32 hours’ work a year by a firm that has benefited from NHS Covid contracts, the Daily Mail can reveal today.
Jonathan Djanogly receives the payments of nearly £1,000 an hour to act as chairman of Pembroke Venture Capital Trust.
It has a stake in Thriva which picked up Government contracts worth £186million, according to data analysts Tunstall.
Thriva’s published accounts show it was worth just £922,000 at the end of 2019, but according to the Pembroke website, this had soared to around £30million this summer.
Thriva’s first £61million Covid testing contract was awarded without competition in August 2020, three months after its directors met former health minister Lord Bethell.
Jonathan Djanogly (pictured) receives the payments of nearly £1,000 an hour to act as chairman of Pembroke Venture Capital Trust
His use of an official email address was controversial and he was made redundant two months prior.
Mr Djanogly, who served as a minister under David Cameron, repaid £25,000 during the MPs’ expenses scandal in 2009.
He defended the lucrative second job and said he hadn’t made personal approach to ministers for Thriva.
‘My remuneration is standard for a non-executive chair of a venture capital trust,’ he said.
‘I intend to remain in my post at Pembroke. Outside interests are beneficial to MPs’ experience.’
He is one of five Conservative MPs who have been paid salaries by corporations that are interested in pandemic healthcare.
Steve Brine, who gets three extra salaries on top of his MP’s pay, receives £20,000 for up to eight hours work a month for Sigma Pharmaceuticals. He was invited to a webinar by Nadhim Zahawi, a former minister of vaccines.
The firm has won contracts worth a total of £140,000 to supply Covid tests and other items to pharmacies. He also receives £38,400 annually for one day’s work a month for each of two further firms which are also in healthcare.
They are Remedium, which has been paid £1.4million since 2016 to recruit NHS personnel, and Microlink PC, which supplies the NHS with technology to help the disabled.
Yesterday night’s request for comments was not answered by Mr Brine.
Former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith (pictured) gets £25,000 a year for 12 hours’ work a month for Byotrol, which supplies the NHS with more than 92 per cent of its non-alcoholic hand sanitiser
Former Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns is paid £15,000 a year for ‘up to’ 70 hours’ work for BBI, which was part of the consortium led by Abingdon Health to develop and supply Covid antibody tests.
The contracts, which were brokered by Lord Bethell under the ‘VIP’ fast track route, were cancelled after at least £19million had been paid because the tests were not accurate enough.
Former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith gets £25,000 a year for 12 hours’ work a month for Byotrol, which supplies the NHS with more than 92 per cent of its non-alcoholic hand sanitiser.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, it has witnessed 600% growth in its profit.
Sir Iain was the chairperson of a Government Task Force that recommended a wider use of nonalcoholic sanitizers, though he denied any conflicts of interest.
Last night Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner (pictured) said: ‘You can be an MP representing your constituents or you can be an MP representing the companies that pay you – you cannot be both’
The MP also receives £20,000 a year as an adviser to Tunstall Health Group for up to 30 hours of work annually.
George Freeman, now in his second spell as a junior minister, received £5,000 last year from Aerosol Shield Ltd when it was trying to sell PPE to the Health Service.
He was criticised for failing to seek advice before doing so – a breach of the rules governing former ministers. After apologizing, he said he had misunderstood parts of the ministerial code.
Last night Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said: ‘You can be an MP representing your constituents or you can be an MP representing the companies that pay you – you cannot be both.’
Jolyon Maugham QC, of the Good Law Project, which is challenging dozens of PPE and Covid testing contracts in the High Court, said: ‘£1,000-an-hour second jobs – it’s like the winning card in bingo.’
Since 2001, Mr Djanogly occupied the Huntingdon seat of Sir John Major.