New figures have revealed that 20 MPs earn more than £100k a year on top of their House of Commons salary. The politicians have declared the outside earnings from a range of sources from legal work to writing novels, according to the Guardian.
The 20 are all in receipt on the £67,060 salary meaning that they are already earning many times what their constituents can hope to bring in.
The top earner was Gordon Brown who brought in nearly half a million pounds in fees for public speaking. The former Prime Minister has been criticised in the past for spending almost no time in the House of Commons. He has only turned up a handful of times since he left Downing Street.
The second biggest earner was Geoffrey Cox QC, the Conservative backbencher and senior barrister. Cox is said to still be a regular at in court, and has made almost no reduction to the amount of legal work he does since being elected to parliament in 2005.
Cox was thought to be a contender for Attorney General in the last reshuffle but was believed to be reluctant to give up his lucrative practise to enter the government. The list of top earners also includes Stephen Phillips QC who earned £249,128 and Sir Edward Garnier QC who brought in £227,464.
Once again George Galloway proved that his hard left views have not dissuaded him from being will to pocket a big salary. He made £265,350 from television presenting, mostly from presenting his talk show on Russia Today called Sputnik.
Most of the big earners are Conservative MPs and Labour has threatened to outlaw outside earnings if they get into power. The Conservative leadership cannot agree to any changes due to backbench pressure. However the big earnings raise questions about conflicts of interest and whether the every MP has the time to do their job properly.
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