Members’ Paid Directorships and Consultancies

Mark Field Excerpts

Wednesday 25th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

I am coming to the details of the motion in a moment. Clearly, right hon. and hon. Members make their own judgments about that, on both sides of the House, and find it entirely possible to do the work of a Member of Parliament.

[Mark Field (Cities of London and Westminster) (Con)]

Does the Leader of the House share my concern that, understandably perhaps, 10 weeks before an election this rather opportunistic motion is put forward? These issues are not for this House; they are for IPSA. After the expenses scandal, we set up IPSA to look at this and other issues. If we want to unravel what IPSA has done, either on this matter or on the issue of salaries, we do so at our peril.

[Mr Hague]

Salaries and allowances are for IPSA, but there have been independent reports on this issue. Again, I will come to that in a moment, but I just want to finish the point about the substantial increase in transparency that has rightly taken place in recent years. That does not mean we have finished the job of making Parliament more responsive to public concerns. The shadow Leader of the House has said some things about what will be in the Labour manifesto on this, but there will be matters about Parliament in the Conservative manifesto, including reducing the size of the House of Commons, and equalising the size of constituencies, thereby being fair to all parties and all constituencies, and saving money in the process.