My local MP, Julian Smith, is having a very profitable year. Literally.
The Right Honourable Member for Skipton and Ripon earns almost as much as the Prime Minister – from his second jobs.
He built up an impressive business portfolio after Boris Johnson sacked him as Northern Ireland Secretary.
The House of Commons Register of Members’ Interests shows successful Smith has three places of work outside Westminster.
He earns £60,000 a year, plus VAT, as an external adviser on business development to Ryse Hydrogen of London, paid monthly, for 20 hours a year.
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He also trousers £60,000 a year, plus VAT, from MJM Marine of Newry in his old Ulster bailiwick, also paid monthly, for a more onerous 30-40 hours a year.
From Simply Blue Management of Newquay, he picks up another £2,000 per month plus VAT as an adviser, and is expected to put in 1-2 hours a month.
This bumper pay packet totals £144,000 a year for what could be less than eight days’ work, some of it at £3,000 an hour. Yet his government baulks at a £10 an hour National Minimum Wage, and tells workers on Universal Credit “work two more hours” to recoup their £20 benefit cut.
Of course, all this lovely moolah on top of his £81,932 a year parliamentary salary (plus generous allowances) is approved by the authorities.
It is perfectly legal and above board.
All I can I say is: some authority, some law, some board.
Smith must have business skills not readily apparent when he was a minister. As Theresa May’s chief whip, he broke the parliamentary rules on “pairing” and lost countless votes. He couldn’t whip a top. And he lasted less than seven months in Belfast.
Quite what his second-jobbery does for the 78,000 people of his largely rural constituency escapes me.
Frankly, I wouldn’t pay jammy Julian in washers, but he’s not alone in cashing in on the cachet of being an MP. Dozens of them are at it.
There is pressure to end the privilege. Mirror readers are in no doubt, voting 79% to scrap the system.
The name above Julian Smith in the Register is Jeff Smith, Labour MP for Manchester Withington. He lists his outside interests as “Nil”.
Further comment would be superfluous.
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Requiring all NHS public-facing staff to get the jab is draconian, but perhaps necessary. But where’s the reciprocal sacrifice by Covid patients? Most of those now in hospital are unvaccinated by their own choice.
This is unbalanced and unfair.
Acceptance of the jab by patients whose anti-vaxxery got them in there should also be compulsory.
They’re largely to blame for spreading the virus to doctors, nurses and staff, not the other way round.
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Footballer Marcus Rashford got an MBE for his magnificent campaign against child poverty, not the OBE.
But he can take consolation that his award means ‘My Bloody Efforts’ whereas the higher gong means ‘Other Buggers’ Efforts’.
