The resignation of former Tory minister Owen Paterson has thrown the issue of MPs’ incomes into the spotlight.
Mr Paterson last week dramatically quit as North Shropshire MP after being accused of lobbying on behalf of Randox and Lynn’s Foods - who have together paid him more than £500,000 as a consultant.
He denies any wrongdoing - but says the “intolerable” pressure on his family meant he couldn’t continue in politics.
Many MPs have other income streams, making money from things like consultancy roles, book deals and speeches.
There is no cap on what MPs can earn on top of their parliamentary salary - which starts at £81,932 excluding expenses and other perks - provided that all income is declared in official registers and no work relates to lobbying parliament.
But this rule is controversial - with some politicians and campaign groups arguing MPs shouldn’t be allowed to take on any other paid work.
We analysed the Commons register of financial interests to see which ten MPs have declared the largest earnings from the private sector since the 2019 election.
1. Theresa May (Con) - £1.6m
Unlike her predecessor David Cameron, the former Prime Minister refused to give up her Maidenhead seat when she was forced out of office in July 2019.
She signed to the prestigious Washington Speakers Bureau later that year and, on average, she declares 10 times as much a year from talks as she earns as a backbencher.
In February 2020, she was paid £115,000 to speak to a women’s forum founded by the Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum despite ongoing international concern about the UAE's human rights record.
During her visit, May was pictured shaking the hand of Al Maktoum, who has been accused of kidnapping his daughters and abusing his estranged wife.
And the pandemic didn't put a stop to her lucrative speaking gigs - during lockdown she was charging around £45,000 for speeches delivered on Zoom.
Mrs May's speaking earnings are paid to the Office of Theresa May Ltd.
On the register of interests, she declares: "These sums are used to pay employees, maintain my ongoing involvement in public life and support my charitable work."
The Office of Theresa May has paid the former Prime Minister a salary of £85,000 a year since September last year.
2. Sir Geoffrey Cox (Con) - £1m
Former attorney general Sir Geoffrey Cox has made a fortune working as a barrister while representing Torridge and West Devon in parliament.
And he's no stranger to controversy over his huge earnings.
In 2016, he resigned from the House of Commons standards committee when it was revealed he failed to meet the deadline for declaring £400,000 he’d been paid for legal work.
The committee found he had committed a "serious" breach of parliamentary rules but accepted it was not intentional and he made a public apology.
In the same year, he unsuccessfully tried to claim 49p for a pint of milk on Commons expenses but this was rejected by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.
In response, he said: “In collating the office expenses for me to sign off, my staff had failed to notice that the rules had changed in May so as to place these costs outside the scope of IPSA’s scheme.
“Once the error was identified, it was returned by Ipsa and immediately cancelled by my office.”
He gave up practising law temporarily when he was appointed attorney general in 2018, but has made more than a million since leaving the cabinet and resuming legal work in February 2020.
3. Sir John Redwood (Con) - £439k
Sir John Redwood, a former Tory leadership candidate and secretary of state for Wales, has several roles with private investment firms.
The bulk of the Wokingham MP’s earnings come from his role as chairman of the investment committee of Charles Stanley - which has netted him £15,606 per month since the last election. The firm also pays him bonuses on occasion.
Despite his wealth, he once charged the taxpayer £112 for reseeding the lawn at his constituency home in Berkshire.
He was ordered to pay the money back - and moaned that the decision was unfair because he felt it was "an honest and accurate claim."
4. Fiona Bruce (Con) - £400k
Lawyer Fiona Bruce is the Prime Minister's envoy on the human right to freedom of religion or belief.
The Congleton MP has continued to work for her own Cheshire based firm, Fiona Bruce and Co LLP, since being elected in 2010.
Ms Bruce said the four largest of the 18 payments she listed were “almost entirely tax payments not receipts by me” but “for technical reasons have to be declared.”
5. Andrew Mitchell (Con) - £335k
Former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell makes a tidy sum from private investment companies while representing Sutton Coldfield in parliament.
This includes SouthBridge, an African investment bank based which pays him £39,600 a year for just nine days’ work.
Yet in the past some of his expense claims have raised eyebrows.
When the Telegraph broke the story of the MPs’ expenses scandal in 2009, it was revealed he'd claimed £19,000 for cleaning, decorating and gardening - even billing the public purse for a duvet stuffed with goose down.
He told the paper he’d acted within the rules, insisting the sum claimed was “less than the cost that I have incurred maintaining my second home and is less than the amount I would have been entitled to claim."
6. Sajid Javid (Con) - £276k
The Bromsgrove MP resigned as chancellor in February 2020 following an explosive bust up with Boris Johnson's former top aide Dominic Cummings.
But just months after leaving office, he was handed two roles with a combined annual salary of over £300,000.
In August last year, he began a £150,000 a year role with bank JP Morgan.
Due to the fact he'd served in the cabinet within the last two years, he had to consult the government's Advisory Committee on Business Appointments about his roles.
The committee warned Javid's "privileged access to information" as chancellor meant accepting a job with JP Morgan carried "potential risks" but ultimately allowed the appointment to go ahead.
Two months later, he signed up for a role with software firm C3.ai, paying an annual salary of £151,835. He also consulted the committee about this role.
In addition, he made money from speeches.
He quit both JP Morgan and C3.ai after less than a year, returning to the cabinet in June to replace Matt Hancock as health secretary.
7. Richard Fuller (Con) - £250k
Mr Fuller represented Bedford from 2010 to 2017, when he lost his seat to Labour, and took up a role as chief executive of software company Impero Solutions.
He returned to parliament in 2019 to represent North East Bedfordshire and quit his post with the company.
Impero gave him a severance payment of £105,000 at the end of March 2020 - but allowed him to continue as an advisory director, paying £20,000 a year for just two hours work a month.
He also has a string of roles advising other firms, in the fields of software, security and venture capitalism.
8. Owen Paterson (Con) - £208k
The MP at the centre of the furore made his money as a consultant to Randox and Lynn's Country Foods, netting him north of £100,000 a year on top of his backbench salary.
The former environment secretary refused to accept the standards committee's findings that he had lobbied on behalf of both companies, in contravention of the rules.
A government bid to reform the standards process - which would have allowed him to appeal - backfired.
He resigned this week in the wake of the controversy, a decision which will trigger a by-election in his North Shropshire constituency.
9. Sir John Hayes (Con) - £202k
The South Holland and the Deepings MP served in a range of ministerial posts under both Theresa May and David Cameron.
Since leaving government in 2018, he’s made money in a number of different ways.
He has a lucrative contract as an advisor to oil company BB Energy paying £50,000 a year. He also delivers lectures on political studies.
10. Nadine Dorries (Con) - £157k
Culture secretary Nadine Dorries makes her money writing books on the side - mainly based in her home city of Liverpool - and has sold over 2.5 million to date.
She's written 15 titles in total and regularly receives royalty payments, as well as advances for new work.
Her first book was published in 2014 - nine years after her election to parliament.
