Scores of MPs are being paid millions of pounds a year for external jobs, a new report has found, which condemns the rules governing how MPs are able to carry for external work.
The study from Transparency International, a campaign group, found that 73 MPs were paid £3.4million in the past 12 months for “external advisory roles”, including in some cases board positions.
Transparency International blamed what it called a “patchwork of lobbying regulation good practice across different parts of the UK” which allowed MPs to hold these part time jobs.
While “payments for Parliamentary advisory services” are prohibited for peers in the House of Lords, “such payments are still allowed to MPs in the House of Commons”, it said.
The payments cover the 12 months before the general election when the biggest outside earner was former Labour Prime Gordon Brown who was paid £268,705.
