Westminster Accounts: Number 10 says MPs should ‘focus on serving constituencies’ after Sky News reveal second jobs earnings

MPs should “focus on serving their constituency” rather than on second jobs, Rishi Sunak’s official spokesperson has said, in reaction to reports from Sky News.

Research by our Westminster Accounts project today revealed MPs earned an average £233 per hour for roles outside of parliament – 17 times higher than the national average and over 22 times more than the hourly minimum wage.

The data also showed MPs had spent almost 89,000 hours carrying out the work since the start of the parliament in 2019.

All of this falls within the currents rules, as long as MPs declare who they worked for, for how long, and how much they were paid.

Politics live: Truss paid £15,770 an hour for second jobs

Asked about the findings, the prime minister’s spokesman said an MP’s “primary focus must always be on serving their constituency”, and that it would be their voters who “decide if they’ve done a good enough job” as their representative in Westminster.

But they failed to commit to any changes to the rules that allow additional work to take place.

Earlier, the SNP’s former Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, said there was a “legitimate debate” to be had about MPs’ outside earnings.

Mr Blackford – who earned over £38,000 for 31 hours work over the past four years – said it was “important the public can have trust in those they send to parliament” and people were “rightly appalled” by some of the “eye watering” sums being paid to MPs.

Read more from Sky News:
Westminster Accounts – the story so far
Keegan: Headteachers should pick up absent pupils from home
Liz Truss hints her disastrous mini-budget would have worked out

Tory MP and chair of the health select committee, Steve Brine, accused Westminster Accounts of “smearing” politicians.

Mr Brine, who has worked 497 hours in second jobs this parliament on an average of £200 per hour, told Sky News: “I’m focused on my constituents, I focus on chairing my select committee and I always have [been].

“I think you should be very careful about smearing MPs and making out that MPs are not focusing on their jobs – 99.9% of MPs I’ve met in Westminster are focused on doing their job and doing the right thing.

“Be very careful before you run our profession into the ground.”