Starmer's vision quest

[Bromptonaut]

I'm not quite sure doing a few after dinner speeches counts as a second job. Politicians have done that for as long as I can remember.

I'm quite sure doing a bit of speaking at functions is not a second job.

 

[TailWindHome]

I've no issue in principle with MPs having additional jobs.
I'd prevent them from taking the proverbial by capping the permitted additional earnings at the same level as an MPs salary.

 

[Pross]

Come one Stevo, I had you down as right wing but at least capable of some critical thinking.

Firstly - this is an article in the Telegraph. A newspaper that regularly indulges in fiction to generate clicks.

She could now earn tens of thousands of pounds a year delivering addresses to corporate clients on politics and “leadership under pressure”.

Translation: We have no idea whether she is making money from speeches, how much money she is making from speeches, but we think that she might have charged someone for making a speech or be intending to charge someone for making a speech.

A little bit of googling would have shown you the actual (non) story. Angela Rayner has been approved by the Prime Minister's independent advisor on ministerial standards to become a paid speaker for Chartwell Speakers.

A little more would have shown that the reason for joining Chartwell appears to be that she had been asked to speak at an event for a Pensions Insurance Specialist and that they wanted to pay her via Chartwell. She says in her submission that she would speak occasionally at private events.

This then leads to the philosophical discussion about whether being paid occasionally to do after dinner speaking really constitutes a second job. Obviously some of the most critical politicians will be people like Nigel 12 Jobs Farage.

Note also that the Daily Mail went on the attack about the sheer hypocrisy of Rayner doing some speeches after they and other rags hounded her out of her cabinet post. They don't mention their own sheer hypocrisy in avoiding taxes and publishing misinformation.

Be fair, it's only 11 jobs. He may be taking an MP's salary but you can't accuse him of wasting precious time doing the job.