Boris Johnson has ditched plans to put a limit on how much MPs can earn in a second job in an move to placate Tory backbenchers.
The Prime Minister had pledged to clamp down on MPs’ outside earnings after a huge sleaze row blew up over his friend and now former MP Owen Paterson last year.
Johnson sparked a Commons revolt with a botched attempt to change the parliamentary rules and save Paterson from being suspended for undeclared paid lobbying rules.
Paterson quit as an MP and Ministers signalled they would agree to limits being set on outside jobs.
But in a submission to the Commons standards committee Downing Street’s chief of staff Steve Barclay MP and Commons leader Mark Spencer MP said “the imposition of fixed constraints such as time limits on the amount of time that members can spend on outside work would be impractical”.
Barclay, who is also Cabinet Office minister, added: “In respect of a cap on earnings from outside work to impose such a limit could serve to prohibit activities which do not bring undue influence to bear on the political system.
“Earnings from activities such as writing books for example, would not preclude members from meeting their principal duty to their constituents.”
In November, the prime minister said MPs who were prioritising outside interests over their constituents should be “investigated and appropriately punished” after it was revealed Geoffrey Cox MP had been paid nearly £6 million as a lawyer since joining parliament and was voting by proxy on days he was undertaking paid work.
The PM also said the rules should be changed to ban sitting MPs from being paid political consultants or lobbyists.
The committee on standards released proposals for a new code of conduct in November.
It said MPs should face a complete ban on working as paid consultants and ministers should be more open about any potential conflicts of interest.
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