Radlett Wire

How much should an MP earn from outside work? Is it okay for an MP to work part-time? Should MPs be able to work outside Parliament at all? Occasional reminder that your MP Sir @OliverDowden has three extra jobs and makes £320,000/year on top of his salary bit.ly/4b19u95

@OliverDowden @KemiBadenoch He's not currently on any committees (they do take up a lot of time) but he's chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the United Arab Emirates and he's a member of several other groups. Details on the They Work For You web site: bit.ly/4see3D1

@OliverDowden @KemiBadenoch We wouldn't want you to believe that Sir @OliverDowden doesn't actually do anything in Parliament. He spoke in the House of Commons yesterday, for instance, to oppose the government's proposed reduction in the number of jury trials: bit.ly/4rYEzQJ

We've updated the Sir @OliverDowden Sketchy Behaviour Monitor - we noticed that our MP's extra-Parliamentary income now amounts to £320,000 per year, just short of £420,000 with his MP's salary, putting him very close to the top of the list of earners. bit.ly/4b19u95

@OliverDowden @reformparty_uk @DarrenSelkus Salaries for MPs were introduced in 1911, in an effort to attract legislators from beyond the landowners and industrialists who'd filled the roles before that. UK Parliamentarians are paid less than in many other countries but should we expect our MPs to get by on their £93,904?

@OliverDowden @reformparty_uk We know that many MPs from other parties take no outside income at all and some even give part of their MP's wage to charity. One Reform Party MP has at least promised to take no salary at all and @DarrenSelkus, the party's Hertsmere candidate, has made a similar promise.

We kind of idly keep an eye on the extra-Parliamentary activities of our MP, Sir @OliverDowden. Legislators ar required to register their outside earnings in the Register of Members' Financial Interests and Sir Oliver does so dilligently, so we now know that he has a new gig!

Caroline Clapper is one of twenty Tory councillors who dumped the Tories yesterday, in a carefully-timed stunt that's calculated to make @KemiBadenoch's conference even more uncomfortable…

@DarrenSelkus @carolineclapper @reformparty_uk Clapper would be a much better candidate for Reform in the Hertsmere Parliamentary constituency than you, though, right? Her years of service as a county and borough councillor will give her a huge advantage, surely? Are you ready to switch to a different constituency?

@RadlettWire @carolineclapper @reformparty_uk I certainly have something to say. Delighted to welcome Caroline to Reform Hertsmere. Let’s be clear, she didn’t leave the Conservatives, they left her.

So @carolineclapper has made her move. Your county councillor has joined @reformparty_uk. We know that she wants to be an MP so we wonder if she's been promised selection for Hertsmere at the next general election. @DarrenSelkus might have something to say about that, of course…

@carolineclapper @reformparty_uk @DarrenSelkus @HertsmereBC @hertscc @OliverDowden And, sorry that we keep going on about this, but here's the absolutely definitive history of voting in Hertsmere, with all the results, for council seats and the Parliamentary constituency, going back to its creation in 1983: bit.ly/3zVVqxI

@carolineclapper @reformparty_uk @DarrenSelkus @HertsmereBC @hertscc @OliverDowden And we wrote about our candidate and military veteran @DarrenSelkus; insurgent parties in Hertsmere and the history of right-wing minority parties in the constituency, at the end of last year… bit.ly/3Zed0Wu