MPs and Second Jobs

Nigel Evans Excerpts

Thursday 23rd February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Alex Burghart]

The hon. Gentleman might find, if he did that, that people would be asking for a lot of other information to be published about Members at the ballot box. The public are perfectly capable and willing to find out about people they vote for, as he will know from knocking on doors. In my experience, voters are often very well informed and do not vote blindly. Consequently, although he says that the public support the thrust of his Bill, I put it to him that the public have also voted repeatedly over many years for Members with outside interests, when they have often had a choice not to do so. We should all respect their decision, because it is their decision.

The hon. Gentleman says that changing the law in this way would make this House more representative of people in the country. Often when I voted before I was a Member of this House, I did not vote for people like me. I made a choice to vote for the best candidate regardless of their background. Again, there are some things that are right for us to debate, but that are not right for us to decide. We must leave these decisions in the hands of the voters. Of course, such a system can only work when we have transparency, and it is transparency that this Government have supported and will continue to support.

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his thoughts, and I hope he will forgive me for not being able to recall the particular exemptions that he set out in his Bill. I thank him for his interest in this subject, but I am afraid that we will have to agree to disagree.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)]

Before I put the question, I want to intrude a little on the debate to say that this weekend is WorldPride in Sydney, Australia. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world will be gathering to celebrate the festivities there, including mardi gras. [Interruption.] The Minister asks whether I will be one of them—I went to WorldPride in New York just before covid, and it was glorious and fantastic. The hon. Members for Jarrow (Kate Osborne) and for Redcar (Jacob Young) and I have all agreed that we would love to be there this weekend, but someone has to keep the show on the road, particularly on Friday. We want to send a clear message to all those celebrating. I have seen the Sydney opera house lit up with all the flags encompassed in the pride movement, and it looks fantastic. It will be superb weather, because it is Australia. They will have a fantastic time and we want to say from the House of Commons in the United Kingdom that we share your pride.

Question put and agreed to.