MPs 'should be banned from other jobs'
Thursday, 24 July 2008 7:57 PM
MPs should be banned from getting second jobs on top of their political obligations, the coordinator of Gordon Brown's leadership campaign has said.
Chris Leslie, who left the House of Commons after being narrowly defeated by Conservative Philip Davies in 2005, said MPs needed to take radical steps to combat the growing image of them self-serving.
Writing in today's Fabian Review, Mr Leslie said: "Our politicians need to set an example and act fairly at a time when ordinary people have such low expectations of the behaviour of elected representatives.
"If MPs have excessive outside earnings from consultancies and directorships, then people perceive that they are diverted from the public interest - or worse, that they are exploiting their public status," he continued.
"Labour could be bold and propose a ban on outside earnings for MPs, or at the very least should emulate the American cap on external income at 15 per cent of a member's annual salary.
"Such is the crisis of confidence in politics that only radical steps such as this can hope to impress a sceptical public," he added.
Many MPs earn significant additional salaries outside of their political obligations by sitting on the boards of companies. While explicit conflicts of interest rarely emerge from these positions, politicians often trade on their parliamentary connections in the private sector role.
With the issue of MPs expenses still dominating the headlines, Mr Leslie's advice is just the latest suggestion from within the Westminster village about how to improve the public perception of politicians.
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