The following is from Unlock Democracy
^MPs' 2nd jobs are back in the headlines and surprise, surprise, it’s not a good news story.
It’s less than a year since Gavin Williamson MP left his job as Education Secretary. Yesterday it was revealed that he has become a £50,000 a year advisor to a company that runs private schools, university courses and education investment.
We think this is at the very least a bad look for our politics.
We’re campaigning for restrictions on MPs’ 2nd jobs. The prime responsibility of an MP should be to serve their constituents.
Shockingly Gavin Williamson isn't even breaking any rules. His new role has been approved by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) with some conditions.
But even if Mr Williamson breaks those conditions, he will face little action - the Chair of Acoba admits it is toothless, because it has no enforcement powers.
The problem here is our outdated Parliamentary rules.
It’s time to fix those rules. We want to restrict MPs’ second jobs. We suggest no MP earns more than 50% of their Parliamentary income from other jobs or spend more than 15 hours a week on them.
We also believe that the rules on ex-Ministers’ employment need tightening and that there has to be proper enforcement of them.
Any failure to act will further undermine trust in our politics.^
It seems to me that most people earning £50k pa would be working a full week so how can Williamson find the time to continue with his constituency work?
