Tories in crisis are sleazed. But the Prime Minister doesn’t seem to be aware. Or is it that he doesn’t care?
Sir Geoffrey Cox is the latest victim in this harrowing saga. He was formerly Conservative Attorney General. It would be hard to think of actions more damaging to his party than the crop of revelations published in yesterday’s and today’s Mail.
Sir Geoffrey is long considered to be one of the top earners within the Commons. His work as a barrister has seen him earn enormous amounts over the years. This raised eyebrows among his peers.
In the past year alone he was paid more than £1 million for outside legal work on top of his £82,000 salary as a backbencher. Even more amazing than the amount and method he received them was the fact that he did so.
Tories in crisis are engulfed by sleaze. But the Prime Minister doesn’t seem to be aware. Or is it that he doesn’t care?
Corruption
According to reports, Sir Geoffrey was believed to be hiding out in the British Virgin Islands (a well-known tax haven) between April and May 2013. There he proffered expensive legal advice to the territory’s government, which has been accused of corruption.
In particular, the Foreign Office has launched an inquiry to establish whether there is evidence of ‘corruption, abuse of office or other serious dishonesty that has taken place in public office in recent years’. Let’s just say that this former officer of the Crown wasn’t obviously working in the interests of Her Majesty’s Government while he was abroad.
His behaviour was entirely legal — and he was paid stupendously well. Sir Geoffrey — who is both rotund and orotund, and looks as though he might have wandered out of the Edwardian era — pocketed £156,916.08 for 140 hours’ work. That amounts to £1,121 an hour.
Because of this, Torridge and West Devon’s good citizens, who had just emerged from the trials of lockdown, were denied his services for several months. He is believed to have, however, kept in touch with them via Zoom. Because he often engages in high-paid legal work, they may be used to him being absent.
You could not ask for anything worse. Tax haven. Dodgy governments at odds to ours. Huge sums paid to sitting MPs. An extended stay on sun-kissed beaches, while his constituents deal with Covid. While Sir Geoffrey might be an admirable man, it would appear that he is the embodiment of everything many hate most about the Tories.
Oh — I nearly forgot. Despite his vast earnings, he didn’t scruple to claim £629 for an Apple iPad plus £419 for accessories from the taxpayer so that he could work while travelling. While he might not have violated any rules, this is an example of a man who does not feel shame.
This unexplainable saga has just ended with Sir Geoffrey Cox being named as the new episode. You can’t think of any actions more harmful to his party as the Daily Mail revelations.
Do MPs deserve second jobs? Sir Geoffrey’s example is the worst. Some 200 out of 650 MPs have received payments in addition to their parliamentary salary in the past year, but in many cases these are tiny, sometimes as little as £50. A smaller percentage of MPs are earning significant wages, and most of them are Tories.
Theresa May notched up more than £750,000 from speaking engagements, usually given remotely, between April 2020 and May 2021. Perhaps that is uncontroversial, since all ex-prime ministers do the same, though why anyone would want to fork out £11,700 an hour to listen to her making virtual speeches is a mystery.
Former Tory ministers with lucrative consultancies greater than their parliamentary salaries include Andrew Mitchell (£182,000 a year), Julian Smith (£144,000) and Mark Garnier (£90,000).
Labour’s leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has banked £25,934 in legal fees in the past year for work he did before becoming Labour leader
Among Labour MPs making substantial sums are David Lammy, who was paid £140,000 over three years for speeches and media appearances. Even the party’s leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has banked £25,934 in legal fees in the past year for work he did before becoming Labour leader.
The problem with large-spending MPs who make large incomes through beady eye businesses is the temptation to bend the rules for their financial masters. If they are paid huge amounts by large firms, politicians may be expecting some kind of return.
That is what happened to Owen Paterson, who was in receipt of more than £100,000 a year from two companies, and broke parliamentary rules by lobbying, though he continues to deny any infringement. The Tories’ current crisis was precipitated by Paterson’s refusal to take a minor penalty.
A second objection is that MPs who spend too much time working for outside interests risk ignoring the Commons and neglecting their constituents’ problems. Sir Geoffrey Cox, British Virgin Islands governor, has been in court ten times since February 2020. He has only spoken once within the chamber during the same time period.
Favors
Compare this sad record to Sir David Amess’s tragic one. He was murdered in his constituency surgery. He was a dedicated and hardworking member of parliament who had remained focused on his MP responsibilities all his life. He is not the only one like him.
It is possible for MPs to hold second jobs, as long as they do not interfere with their work or involve lobbying in the interests of companies. The outside world can open up the mind. Unfortunately, some MPs have too narrow experiences, especially those that entered Parliament as young people.
However, there should be limits. Someone in charge must draw one. It must all come down from the top. For this to happen — for Sir Geoffrey Cox and other miscreants to accept that their conduct isn’t acceptable — Boris Johnson must demonstrate a greater awareness.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to be able or willing to do this. He is not a good person and has an indifferent attitude to his behavior. He has, for example, refused to declare in the register of MPs’ interests a free holiday which he has just enjoyed in the luxurious Spanish villa belonging to the Goldsmith family.
The Mail reports today that Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski, who earned more than £250,000 from a second job with a mining company, has used his role as the PM’s trade envoy to Mongolia to boost his links with the industry.
Apologise
It’s not hard to see why. He deserves a couple of days at home in his beautiful home after all that hard work. Secretiveness is what really irritates. Boris may view these matters solely as his private matter. Rules are not something that is private.
Similarly, his refusal to apologise for the idiocies of last week — proposing to tear up the rules which had ensnared Mr Paterson, and then reversing the policy — gives the impression of a Prime Minister who doesn’t feel bound by standards that constrain lesser mortals.
He even avoided Monday afternoon’s emergency debate about the imbroglio he had whipped up, giving the excuse that he was otherwise engaged. Yet he was back at London’s King’s Cross at 4.41pm, nearly two hours before the debate ended. The decision to cancel his attendance was reckless and impulsive.
As the allegations of fraud continue to rise, there are still many instances. The Mail reports today that Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski, who earned more than £250,000 from a second job with a mining company, has used his role as the PM’s trade envoy to Mongolia to boost his links with the industry.
Boris Johnson is a man who has survived many personal and public controversies throughout his entire life. He thinks that he is able to extricate the Tory Party from its sleaze using the same charm and obfuscation. I fear for his safety.