Richard Burgon MP slams Nigel Farage for taking £22,500 an hour second job while arguing against youth minimum wage

Labour MP Richard Burgon has called out Nigel Farage for failing to turn up to a debate about MPs’ second jobs, after records showed he earned the equivalent of £22,500 an hour promoting a gold dealer.

The latest register of members’ interests, published on 29 June, found that Farage had taken £270,000 for promoting Direct Bullion for four hours per month for three months.

The MP for Leeds East, who organised the Westminster Hall debate on banning MPs from having second jobs, said he was “disappointed” that the Reform leader had failed to show up.

He said he had written to a letter to Farage on Monday, inviting him to attend the debate and explain why MPs should be allowed “to rake in vast sums from second jobs”.

Burgon said: “Yesterday, it came to light that he has been getting paid £22,500 an hour promoting a gold dealer. That takes his second job earnings to approaching £2 million in just two years since the general election.”

He added: “More than £22,000 per hour for a man who last year argued that a minimum wage of £10.85 per hour for young people in his constituency, in my constituency, in constituencies across the country may be ‘too much’.”

The remarks drew criticism from other MPs, who could be heard saying “shame”. 

“Some man of the people, it’s all very Donald Trump,” Burgon said. 

He added that the public knows that when an MP can earn more for a couple of hours of “so-called” work than a nurse earns in a year “there is something deeply broken in our politics and change is needed”. 

Burgon said that the public “don’t elect MPs to spend their time lining their pockets, and when MPs do that they short change the public who pay them, and they undermine our democracy”. 

In 2022, Burgon published a parliamentary bill for a total ban on second jobs for MPs, which he said he hopes can become law under the next prime minister. 

Burgon said MPs have taken “an eyewatering £11 million in outside earnings since the general election”. 

He added that the top 10 MPs account for £7 million of that total, nearly two-thirds of all second job money.

The top 10 includes 8 Tory MPs and 2 Reform MPs, including Nigel Farage. Beyond the top 10, Conservative MPs account for around 66% of the total, Reform 20% and Labour MPs around 7%.

He said there are 18 MPs who earned more from their second jobs than their MPs’ salary, adding “and for them, it seems being a member of Parliament is the second job”. 

Westminster Hall debates enable backbench MPs to raise an issue and receive a response from the government. They do not involve a vote or trigger a specific action, but are used to draw attention to a concern.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward