Is Ed Miliband right? Is it time we stopped MPs from having jobs outside parliament?
Both Jack Straw and Sir Malcom Rifkind are being investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards after being accused of providing services to private companies for cash in a sting by Channel Dispatches and the Telegraph. Both MPs have been suspended by their respective parties.
In response to the story, Labour leader Ed Miliband has once again reiterated his opposition to MPs having second jobs. “We’ve got to settle this issue of second jobs once and for all so we remove any suspicion that MPs are working not for their constituents’ interests but someone else’s interests,” Miliband said.
91 Tory MPs have second jobs compared to 21 Labour MPs. Tory MPs with second jobs have this year declared £4.4m of earnings in the register of members’ interest. Meanwhile Labour MPs have declared around £1m in earnings.
So is Ed Miliband right? Is it time we stopped MPs from having jobs outside parliament? Cast your vote.
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8 Responses to “VOTE: Should MPs be banned from having second jobs?”
Leon Wolfeson
Sure, soon as you remove the email requirement.
XerxesVargas
Yeah what Leon said.
Steve Hardman
It’s always irritated me that Doctors have dual contracts with NHS and private Hospitals. MPs should only have one exclusive contract. Be an MP. EXCEPTIONS ONLY for necessary practise needed for continued professional registration
Faerieson
Last year Rifkind earned considerably more than his handsome MP’s salary, through sitting on just three company boards. Are we seriously to believe that his loyalties have not been compromised? So mired in this sort of virtual corruption are many of ‘our’ MPs that he was furious that his ‘right’ to feather his nest, on our time, should be questioned.
Where to turn?
mindyourownbusiness
Surveys should not be instruments to build mailing lists. Have you never heard of secret ballots? Incidentally, I would vote to ban all second jobs.