Sir Keir Starmer has defended David Lammy earning more than £200,000 from second jobs in three years as a “part of the political process”.
Mr Lammy, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, has earned £202,599 since the start of the current Parliament in December 2019, an analysis revealed on Sunday.
The Westminster Accounts, a joint venture between Sky News and Tortoise, has collated data about MPs’ second jobs, donations, and memberships of all-party parliamentary groups in one place for the first time.
Income declared by Mr Lammy, the MP for Tottenham, came from more than 40 different sources including speaking engagements at Black History Month events, hosting regular radio shows on LBC and giving a talk at an American university about the war in Ukraine.
Sir Keir urged the Government to “ban all second jobs for MPs, with limited exceptions” in the wake of the Owen Paterson lobbying scandal, while Mr Lammy has attacked other parliamentarians for lucrative second jobs, insisting he earned a “fraction” of their takings.
Asked about Mr Lammy’s outside earnings during an interview with Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Sir Keir said: “I think David does a lot of media work, and I think media work and writing books is all part of the political process. But there's a discussion to be had.
“I was urging the whole House of Commons to agree [to] new rules because I do think we should get rid of second jobs with some exceptions. Some people have jobs where they need to top up their skills, and I do think if you write a political book that may be grounds for an exemption.
“But I still want the House of Commons to agree [to] new rules which are stricter than the rules that we've got – the sooner we can do that, the better.”
Sir Keir has signed a deal with the publisher HarperCollins for a book about his vision for Britain. The register of interests shows he has received an advance of £18,000, although no publication date has been set.
In August, Mr Lammy was found to have breached the code of conduct by inadvertently failing to register on time 16 different interests. The rulebook states MPs must declare interests that may reasonably be considered to influence their actions within 28 days.
Labour’s proposed reforms would have banned Sir Keir from his own second job when he was a backbencher offering legal advice, which earned him £100,000 in fees before his shadow cabinet promotion.
Mr Lammy is one of two Labour MPs among the top 20 earners during the current Parliament, according to the Sky News and Tortoise analysis, with the majority being Conservative MPs.
Theresa May, the former prime minister and MP for Maidenhead, topped the rankings having earned more than £2.5 million through a range of speeches, some of which were given via video link during the pandemic. Mrs May's office was contacted for comment about the figure.
Sir Geoffrey Cox, who has staunchly defended his legal work including commitments as a barrister in the British Virgin Islands, and Boris Johnson, who has already made more than £1 million through speaking engagements since he was ousted from Downing Street in September, were placed second and third.
In November 2021, MPs voted to ban themselves from working as lobbyists or paid political consultants in the wake of the Paterson saga, under which the former Cabinet minister eventually quit Parliament.
Kathryn Stone, the former standards commissioner, recommended a six-week suspension for Mr Paterson over his alleged “paid advocacy” for Randox, a medical diagnostics company, at the height of Britain's battle with coronavirus. Mr Johnson was unsuccessful in his attempts to block the punishment after outcry from within his own party.
Mr Lammy, who has insisted his LBC show was “important for my constituents”, and the Labour Party were contacted for comment.
