Northern Lincolnshire MP earned £3k a month from second job

A northern Lincolnshire MP has earned £3,000 a month from a second job.

Andrew Percy, the Conservative MP for Brigg and Goole, was paid for sitting on the advisory board of a Canadian clean energy company.

He spent approximately six hours per month advising the Iogen Corporation according to the latest register of financial interests, and was paid the equivalent of £500 per hour for his services.

Mr Percy says that currently his only second job is as an unpaid community responder, and that some of the earnings from previous work went towards community projects.

The register of financial interests was last updated on November 1, before controversy about MPs’ lucrative second jobs.

The public register states that Mr Percy began the role with Iogen in June 2021, earning around £12,000 in the four months since then.

His role included providing strategic advice on issues relating to the UK, Canada and EU policy.

Mr Percy said: “The only outside job I have at the present time is as a community first responder. When I have done any paid work in the past, I have always made sure there has been a community benefit and it has gone towards funding community projects.

“Nothing has ever interfered with my role as an MP.”

From June 2019 to April 2021, the Brigg MP also sat on the advisory board of Canadian government relations firm Cumberland Strategies.

He was paid $900 US dollars (then around £710) for eight hours’ work per month.

Mr Percy has also received £550 within the last 12 months for completing opinion surveys. He has donated £350 of this to local good causes or charities.

Parliament’s standards committee is considering banning MPs from working as consultants and advisers while they are in office.

This is not currently against the rules as long as they register their interests and do not lobby the government on behalf of their employers.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Mr Percy or any other MP engaging in this work.

Former MP Owen Paterson stepped down last week after he was found to have breached the rules by promoting two companies which were paying him £112,000 a year.

The ex-environment minister has now left the “cruel world of politics”, and denies breaking the rules.

However, the Standards Committee found he damaged the reputation of the House of Commons.

The committee is now expected to propose reforms into how MPs’ consultancy work is government.

MPs receive an annual salary of £81,932, as well as expenses for travel, running an office and living in London as part of their role.

Mr Percy is one of 30 MPs who would be affected by a ban, according to the Register of Financial Interests.

Apart from a Labour and a Liberal Democrat MP, all are Conservatives.

No other MPs from northern Lincolnshire have declared outside lobbying or advisory roles.