Members’ Paid Directorships and Consultancies

Debate between Jack Lopresti and Angela Eagle

Wednesday 25th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Ms Eagle]

My hon. Friend makes his point.

[Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con)]

rose—

[Ms Eagle]

I will give way one final time, but then I want to finish because I think it is important that we get on with the debate.

[Jack Lopresti]

I thank the hon. Lady for giving way and I have no outside interests to declare. How would her plans affect reservists, who serve in the military and can often be off on operational tours for months on end earning extra income?

[Ms Eagle]

I see no reason why the cap cannot be constituted in such a way as to ensure that people can carry on serving in the armed forces. Government Members must not caricature these proposals. They are about remunerated directorships and consultancies, not about the sort of things that people did before they came to this House.

It is a matter of great regret that the Prime Minister has been so unwilling to recognise the damage that second jobs are doing to the reputation of Parliament and that he dismissed so quickly the attempts of my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition to make cross-party progress on a ban earlier this week. In opposition, the Prime Minister said:

“Being a Member of Parliament must be a full-time commitment…The public deserves nothing less.”

He knew it then, but once in power he refused to do anything to deal with the problem of second jobs, preferring instead to defend the discredited status quo in which the public have lost faith. The amendment that the Leader of the House will, regrettably, soon move defends the status quo, and even at this late stage the Prime Minister could admit that there is a case for change and get on board.