A MPs ‘Outside Interests’ are those that he or she is required in the ‘Register of Members Interests’. This register set up in 1974 records what an MP’s additional sources of employment, outside Parliament he or she has been paid for. These are often jobs in the city, the courts or the media. Currently 101 Tory MPs, 34 Labour MPs, 15 Liberal MPs and 5 Minority MPs have lucrative directorships and legal practices.Well-known examples of such Members known for their moonlighting include William Hague and Boris Johnson MPs. Both were well known before they joined David Cameron’s front bench team of enjoying highly remunerative non-political employment outside the House of Commons. The main reasons why there has been such controversy over MPs having such outside interests include issues over how possible ethical issues and concerns over possible impact on an MP’s effectiveness as a representative.Let us look at the impact such outside interests can have on MPs productivity. During the previous Parliament Micheal Portillo had an extensive list of moonlighting engagements as author, columnist and TV presenter. This meant he had less time to devote to Parliament; he only took part in 38% of parliamentary divisions compared to MPs without such interests averaging 83%.Then there is the question of ethics, arising from employment by outside interests, their employers could unduly influence MPs. Such concerns raised about MPs who are also practising lawyers; who seem to be typically against government efforts to tighten up legislation the legal system, immigration and national security. Could it be they are putting their personal interests ahead of their constituents, since such opposition to reforms, could be interpreted as a threat to their potential income, rather than concerns about justice? Then there is concern about potential opportunities for corruption, there certainly have been numerous scandals over the years, including the Aitken Affair and Cash for Questions during the last Tory government.As to what has been done about regulating MPs outside interests, there have been several attempts to monitor and regulate the activities of ‘moonlighting’ MPs over the years, though with not much success. The efforts by MPs to self regulate have included a Register of Interests being set up administered by Parliamentary Commissioner who advises MPs over interpretation of rules.In general, MPs can accept any form of payment or gifts for work or advice along as he or she declares them to the Register. Despite the setting up of the register, there have still been allegations over breaches of the rules, also the system was further discredited when MPs failed to reappoint Elizabeth Filken to her post , due to complaints by some parliamentarians for her zeal in enforcing the system. This led to the Council of Europe in 2002 recommending that the UK Parliament should replace the current system with a new law; curiously this opinion has been ignored by MPs.
HOW TO TACKLE MOONLIGHTING
Its time we encouraged our MPs to ‘moonlight’, especially if he or she is a backbencher, since they do not have an official role in Westminster notes Charter88. In addition, the current working practices and procedures are not designed to facilitate the effective scrutiny of Government, nor give MPs a meaningful role in the policy process. Therefore, a bored MP has two options become a glorified and overpaid social worker or find some lucrative employment in the city, the courts or the media.Since many of our MPs consider that despite earning, at least four times the average salary, that they are not paid enough, we should encourage them to moonlight, so that outside interests can fund their demands for extra income rather than us taxpayers.Such encouragement would have the added advantage of resolving the complaint that there are too many career politicians representing us, who have no real experience of the working world outside politics. Perhaps being an MP should be like being a member of the TA, you should have a full-time non-political job, where your employer lets you have limited paid time off to conduct your political duties.As for MPs with a heavy constituency workload, it would be cheaper to employ a professional social worker to do much of the work. This would probably mean even less need for the current high number of MPs that represent us in ParliamentInstead, we should follow Hong Kong’s Legislative Assembly and have representatives elected to sit in the House of Lords, representing their profession, pressure group or trade union. At least if a House of Lords representative appointed by the legal profession announced proposed government legislation to reform the legal system was unjust, it would be clearer to the public, that he was fighting to protect the outrageous income that lawyers in his profession currently earn.
MOONLIGHTING Politicians
