Does my MP have a second job? How much your MP earned from additional work during the Covid-19 pandemic

A significant number of MPs earned additional income on top of their parliamentary salaries for work outside of Parliament during the Covid pandemic, a study by NationalWorld can reveal.

Exclusive analysis of the Register of Members' Financial Interests showed that sitting MPs accumulated almost £10m from a wide range of additional work between January 2020 and August 2021, during a time when many members of the public faced financial troubles and uncertainty.

How much do MPs earn from work outside of Parliament?

Between January 2020 and August 2021, MPs received payments equating to at least £9,446,000 from consultancy work, media appearances, local government roles and more.

A majority of MPs (57%) didn’t register any income at all for other work. But the average earned by those that did was £33,735. High earners pushed this average up, with median earnings coming in at £4,710.

Excluding those whose additional income stemmed from opinion surveys solely, one in three of 650 members of Parliament (33% or 215) declared income during this time.

The type of work carried out by MPs during the pandemic varied wildly, from six-figure speeches by former prime minister, Theresa May, to paid gigs by the parliamentary rock band MPs.

And despite recommendations from the Committee on Standards in Public Life, a number of MPs continued to work as paid political consultants, often advising businesses on how best to influence parliament.

Despite only accounting for 56% of MPs in Parliament, Conservative MPs earned around 87% of the overall total.

Some MPs chose to donate a portion of their extra earnings directly to charity, which came to less than 2% of total earnings.

Does my MP have a second job?

NationalWorld has created a searchable table for you to check if your local MP had a second job during the Covid pandemic.

This will allow you to see information about your local MP, including whether they had a second job, how much they earned and how many hours they worked outside of Parliament.

You can find out if your local MP had a second job and how much additional income they earned by entering your constituency into the search bar.

What are the rules on MPs working outside of parliament?

A 2018 report by the Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) noted that “currently, there are no systems in place to regulate outside interests, and therefore no sanctions against MPs taking on outside interests outside of reasonable limits”.

In practice, there is no limit on the amount of work MPs can take on outside of parliament, or how much they can earn.

Although there is a ban on paid political advocacy, recommendations by the CSPL on banning political consultancy have yet to be acted upon.

This means that taking on any number of ‘second jobs’ as an MP is permissible, although there are some rules and regulations that must be adhered to.

According to the UK Parliament website an MP must register individual payments of more than £100 for any employment undertaken outside of Parliament.

Any individual payments of £100 or less must be registered after they have received a total of more than £300 in payments from the same source over the duration of the calendar year.

When MPs register their second sources of income or any additional income they have made, it complies into the Register of Members Financial Interests.

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