Conservative MP Mark Pritchard works over 30 hours per month outside Parliament earning over £10k

The Conservative backbencher earns more through his three jobs outside parliament than his MP salary

A Conservative MP earns almost £11,000 per month from three jobs outside of parliament working for foreign companies.

Mark Pritchard, MP for the Wrekin in Shropshire, currently spends 34 hours per month on outside work, the equivalent of almost a full working week.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The veteran backbench MP earns up to £408 per hour through his outside work, which is carried out through Pritchard’s firm MAP Advisory, which was set up in 2013 when he was an MP. NationalWorld has contacted Pritchard’s office for comment.

Three ‘second jobs’

Pritchard, who was first elected in 2005, currently earns £10,983.33 per month from outside work through his advisory business, equating to significantly more than his MP salary of £84,144 per year.

He provides strategic marketing advice to a US-based think tank which focuses on westernising post-Soviet countries, a US fossil fuels firm and a Swiss engineering firm. The most lucrative role is with Linden Energy Holdings, a Texas-based firm founded by a lobbyist credited with helping lift an oil export ban in the US, who used to work for George W Bush.

Pritchard serves as vice chairman of Linden’s advisory board and lead marketing counsel. He is paid £4,900 per month, with an expected commitment of 12 hours per month.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The MP for Wrekin also provides strategic marketing counsel to StategEast, a Washington-based think tank which looks to develop closer diplomatic and business ties between post-Soviet nations and the West. Since April this year, Pritchard has provided ‘strategic marketing counsel’ to the firm for 10 hours per month, for which he earns £2,083.33. StrategEast’s president, Anatoly Motkin, appears on lobbying registers in the United States, having paid £10,000 to PR firm APCO Worldwide in 2017 to lobby the House of Representatives over anti-corruption efforts.

The MP has a third role providing marketing advice to a Swiss engineering firm, Redway AG. He earns a further £4,000 per month from Redway, with an expected commitment for 12 hours per month.

Five foreign trips this year

In 2013, Pritchard was subject to an undercover investigation by The Telegraph, which reported that the MP was using his political connections to further his own business interests.

An undercover reporter posing as an employee of an Indian private equity firm met with Pritchard over a number of months and discussed potential investment opportunities in Albania and Montenegro. At the time, Pritchard said that he had "acted entirely properly, consistent with the letter and spirit of the MPs’ Code of Conduct" and did not "accept that my business interests conflict with my parliamentary duties".

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Pritchard said that "meetings with friends and business contacts" were in his own time when he travelled on Parliamentary trips and that "many of my European and Balkans friends were made before I entered Parliament".

Pritchard has also been on a number of paid foreign trips this year, some of which took place while parliament was sitting. He has travelled to Israel, Qatar, Washington DC, New York and Berlin since March, totalling 20 days, of which 10 were while parliament was sitting.

A report released by Labour earlier this month proposed a ban on MPs taking on second jobs, with a particular focus on directorships and consultancies. Polling commissioned by NationalWorld last year found that 68% of people think MPs should not be able to take on second jobs.

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.