Geoffrey Cox

Snouts in the trough spring to mind. Definitely shouldn’t be allowed.
No doubt he will get defended.

I think I heard he is being investigated.

There are plenty of lawyers in parliament including Starmer and there is nothing wrong with them having another job, what matters is wether they give proper attention to their constituency.

How can he represent his Devon constituency whilst living and working in the Virgin Islands?

I heard one of his constituents on LBC yesterday morning (the daughter of James Prior). She was very scathing, comparing Cox to her father’s time as MP for the same constituency. She was of the opinion that he should not have been in the British Virgin Islands, working for their legislature, defending them against corruption charges during lock down. She made it quite clear his job should have been to help and support his constituents in Devon. Further to this she pointed out that her father spent a huge amount of time in the constituency and didn’t have time for a second job.

It seems to me that making money was his most important occupation with his constituents coming a very poor second. This is the reason I believe MPs role is to represent their constituents and attend Parliament. They should not have other employment.

Dominic Raab said it was up to his constituency to make changes, not the government. I believe it’s his local Conservative Party with the whip handle. After all he was selected by them!

Parliament needs total reformation. Other nations pay their MPs more and they are forbidden to have outside interests. It’s time for change.

No wonder there is distrust and disrespect across our society.

Yes, but how can he defend someone against his own government?

Because it earned him almost £1m.
Surely it’s not up to the constituents to decide it should be the local party selection process to select someone they know will have the interest of the constituency at heart, not featuring their own nest.

What I find amusing is Chris Grayling being paid £100.000 a year as advisor to Hutchison Ports Europe. I wonder anybody lets him loose near boats. He masterminded the plan to award a £13m contract to Seaborne Freight to transport goods across the Channel and mitigate any issues should there be a no-deal Brexit. One snag. Seaborne Freight didn't have any ships!

Sarnia

What I find amusing is Chris Grayling being paid £100.000 a year as advisor to Hutchison Ports Europe. I wonder anybody lets him loose near boats. He masterminded the plan to award a £13m contract to Seaborne Freight to transport goods across the Channel and mitigate any issues should there be a no-deal Brexit. One snag. Seaborne Freight didn't have any ships!

From Marina Hyde

Good to know that ongoing performance art piece Chris Grayling takes a full £100,000 a year from Hutchison Ports Europe, where I imagine his advice runs to “Quick one: did you remember to acquire some ports? Seems obvious but I once ballsed up on this front with ferries.”

'amusing' is not the word I was thinking about, but yes !

Geoffrey Cox was a QC long before he became an MP in 2005. His constituents must be satisfied with him or he wouldn’t still be their MP. If they feel he isn’t representing them properly they won’t vote for him at the next election, but the fact that they have been happy to keep him in post for sixteen years must be indicative of their satisfaction with him. Like all MPs he has assistants to deal with day to day matters and look after constituents.

He wouldn’t be involved in the BVI case if he had a professional conflict of interest. Lawyers do take conflicts of interest seriously I can assure you, which sometimes means turning away lucrative work. I’ve had to do it.

The virtual meeting held in his parliamentary office probably had to be conducted between his parliamentary work to fit in with other participants. Trying to use this as a hook to hang him on is really grasping at straws. He was in the House in order to be available for parliamentary business rather than sitting in the comparative luxury of his chambers and ignoring parliamentary responsibilities.

What really annoys people, let’s face it, is how much he earns from his work, let’s be honest. The nasty ‘snouts in the trough’ comments. But he’s a QC (as is the multi-millionaire Starmer whose wife is also a lawyer) and QCs command high fees. I know that doesn’t sit well with many but it’s a fact. If he doesn’t keep up his legal practice he has nothing to fall back on if and when he loses his seat. He chose to become an MP and it certainly wasn’t for the money, and it’s not against the rules for an MP to have another job. If it becomes so then many able MPs will be lost.

~~I heard David Blunkett yesterday saying that an M.P, should be in his constituency at the weekend to deal with complaints and concerns of constituents.Cox could not do that if he was in British Virgin Islands. Blunkett is of a generation of M.Ps who would resign if they were deemed to have behaved dishonourably.
Why wasn't Cox told off by the Party?I think the answer to that is staring us in the face. I like to think that we are governed by honourable M.Ps.It's a pity so many of them have shown that they are not.

It's a pity ...

Petera

Sarnia

What I find amusing is Chris Grayling being paid £100.000 a year as advisor to Hutchison Ports Europe. I wonder anybody lets him loose near boats. He masterminded the plan to award a £13m contract to Seaborne Freight to transport goods across the Channel and mitigate any issues should there be a no-deal Brexit. One snag. Seaborne Freight didn't have any ships!

From Marina Hyde

^Good to know that ongoing performance art piece Chris Grayling takes a full £100,000 a year from Hutchison Ports Europe, where I imagine his advice runs to “Quick one: did you remember to acquire some ports? Seems obvious but I once ballsed up on this front with ferries.”^

Like it.

But he’s a QC (as is the multi-millionaire Starmer whose wife is also a lawyer) and QCs command high fees.

I believe Starmer does some work to keep his hand in as a lawyer.

Last year he earned about £20k and managed to do it from his constituency.

Germanshepherdsmum

Geoffrey Cox was a QC long before he became an MP in 2005. His constituents must be satisfied with him or he wouldn’t still be their MP. If they feel he isn’t representing them properly they won’t vote for him at the next election, but the fact that they have been happy to keep him in post for sixteen years must be indicative of their satisfaction with him. Like all MPs he has assistants to deal with day to day matters and look after constituents.

He wouldn’t be involved in the BVI case if he had a professional conflict of interest. Lawyers do take conflicts of interest seriously I can assure you, which sometimes means turning away lucrative work. I’ve had to do it.

The virtual meeting held in his parliamentary office probably had to be conducted between his parliamentary work to fit in with other participants. Trying to use this as a hook to hang him on is really grasping at straws. He was in the House in order to be available for parliamentary business rather than sitting in the comparative luxury of his chambers and ignoring parliamentary responsibilities.

What really annoys people, let’s face it, is how much he earns from his work, let’s be honest. The nasty ‘snouts in the trough’ comments. But he’s a QC (as is the multi-millionaire Starmer whose wife is also a lawyer) and QCs command high fees. I know that doesn’t sit well with many but it’s a fact. If he doesn’t keep up his legal practice he has nothing to fall back on if and when he loses his seat. He chose to become an MP and it certainly wasn’t for the money, and it’s not against the rules for an MP to have another job. If it becomes so then many able MPs will be lost.

Just so that we don't waste any more time suggesting that sometimes MPs behave badly, I have used this excellent post to create a form that will help you forgive any behaviour. It will work for any MP and any behaviour and shows conclusively that MPs never do anything wrong:

<Insert name of MP> was a <insert occupation> long before he/she became an MP in <insert year of first election>. His/her constituents must be satisfied with him/her or he/she wouldn’t still be their MP. If they feel he/she isn’t representing them properly they won’t vote for him/her at the next election, but the fact that they have been happy to keep him/her in post for <insert number> years must be indicative of their satisfaction with him/her. Like all MPs he/she has assistants to deal with day to day matters and look after constituents.

He/she wouldn’t be involved in <insert name of today’s scandal> if he/she had a professional conflict of interest. <Insert name of occupation> do take conflicts of interest seriously I can assure you, which sometimes means turning away lucrative work.

So presumably for those defending thus action, the work of an MP is easily done part time? No wonder they are working for a paltry £89k, plus expenses.

That's the first time that I've heard that Starmer's wife is a lawyer. She now works for the NHS so a) she's no longer practising and b) her occupation is completely irrelevant to the subject of this thread anyway.

The thing that is amusing me is the claim that an MP having a second job like Cox's means that they're more connected to the 'real world'. Like the world of their constituents on some £80 pw Universal Credit?

Someone is removing the Michael with a vengeance, aren't they?

There is a world of difference between earning £20k and 1 million a year. John Redwood works 50 hours a month on his second job - Duncan Smith also earns several grand a year on the side and was the architect of Universal Credit - funny that money gets knocked off UC if you earn any extra. If MPs were limited to, say earning no more than £30k a year in addition to their MPs salary I wonder how m any would crawl out of the woodwork.

Germanshepherdsmum

Perhaps you could explain how KS became a multimillionaire?

I've tried to find out but the only reference to large sums is
$11 million on a website called net idol which doesn't give an explanation.

The only fact I learned (from a different source) was that he and his wife bought their house for £640,000 back in 2004 and that it is now worth £1.8million - and that's in Kentish Town. Not the most salubrious of places (or it wasn't when I lived in London)

We bought our former home in Brixton back in 1979 for £18,500 and it's now worth £1.5 million. It's no longer mine unfortunately, nor am I a millionaire.

The complaint is that he undertook his private work using his parliamentary office for that purpose. I have just read the letter sent to the commissioner from Angela Rayner, Labour shadow 1st minister, in which she raises the complaint. Javid has also agreed. This is not about a minister having two jobs but about doing his private business using parliamentary resources. No doubt Javid would agree as the private case he worked on was defending BVI against allegations of corruption by the British Government.

Dinahmo QCs command very high fees. Starmer is a QC.

Just what is your point germanshepherdsmum, apart from pointing out something we all know, namely that some QCs can command very high fees? You are not trying to defend Cox's behaviour are you?

See Dinahmo’s post above. And yes I am, I have absolutely no problem with it.