Mark Pritchard: Outside jobs and expensed visits eclipse Wrekin MP's salary

Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard received more from outside work and expensed foreign trips than his day job last year.

The Conservative earned £74,066 from six consultancy roles in 2022. He also took five foreign trips with expenses worth £14,666, racking up £88,733 in payments and perks in all, the Commons register of interests shows.

The basic annual salary for an MP is £84,144, as of April 2022.

Mr Pritchard has been contacted for comment.

A BBC Radio Shropshire investigation found his outside jobs took up time worth about 41 working days last year, on top of 20 days abroad, adding up to the equivalent of 61 working days.

Backbenchers are allowed to have second jobs outside Westminster - in 2021 almost a third of MPs declared extra earnings ranging from £50 a year to almost £1m.

Like other MPs, Mr Pritchard publicly declared his outside earnings in the House of Commons register of interests, setting out how he spent an average 49 hours per month providing marketing advice to five companies in 2022.

Anneliese Dodds, Labour Party Chair, said her party tried to ban second jobs in 2021, but Conservative MPs voted for "a watered down cop-out".

Mr Pritchard declared five foreign visits last year, spending a total of 20 days abroad, on trips that were paid by donors and that he said were worth just over £14,600.

Four of those trips appear to have been taken when the House of Commons was sitting, although whether or not parliamentary time was properly used is not known and there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing.

However, James Roberts, managing director of lobby group Taxpayers' Alliance, which campaigns to cut tax and spending, suggested local voters should have a right to recall "if they decide their MP isn't properly discharging their duties".

"Politicians working outside the Westminster bubble brings many benefits, but constituents come first," he said.

"Those doing part-time jobs during parliamentary time should be able to justify this to the people they represent."

Labour chair Anneliese Dodds said: "If Rishi Sunak is to ever honour his promise of honesty, integrity and accountability, and extract his party from this constant quagmire of sleaze he needs to deal with the issue of moonlighting MPs once and for all.

"There is no reason why a serving constituency MP needs to make thousands and thousands of pounds as consultants. It's bad for their constituents and damages public trust in politicians."

A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said: "Integrity, professionalism and accountability are core values of this government.

"An MP's primary job is and must be to serve their constituents and represent their interests in Parliament.

"The government has already banned unwarranted paid-for advocacy and is working closely with the Standards Committee to ensure that MPs focus on their constituents."

Westminster's Standards Committee is conducting an ongoing inquiry into All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs), which are linked to foreign trips, and new limits on outside work are also being considered.

Fellow Shropshire Conservative MPs Daniel Kawczynski and Philip Dunne also topped up their salaries with outside earnings worth nearly half their basic pay in 2022.

Mr Kawczynski earned £36,000 from consultancy work for mining company the Electrum Group LLC, which paid him £3,000 a month for 15 hours work.

He also took up two foreign trips, which he declared to have been worth £4,244 in expenses for hotels, travel and meals.

An eight-day trip to Poland in July, valued at £4,052, was sponsored by the Polish National Foundation with the aim of strengthening bilateral relations.

A second, three-day trip to Albania was sponsored by civil engineers Elysium Construction Ltd "to advance economic and cultural ties" and included accommodation worth £192.

The Albanian visit appears to have been taken when the Commons was sitting, although again there is no suggestion of impropriety.

Mr Kawczynski's outside job took up about 24 working days last year, on top of 13 days abroad, totalling the equivalent of 37 working days. It is not known whether this overlapped with parliamentary time.

Philip Dunne, who is the chair of Westminster's environmental audit committee, has two outside jobs worth £42,081 and spent the equivalent of about 19 working days on these roles last year.

He is a non-executive director of engineering technology developer Reaction Engines Ltd, based in Oxfordshire. He was paid £3,400 a month for eight hours work, totalling £40,800 a year.

Mr Dunne is also a partner in Leominster-based Gatley Farms, drawing down £1,281 for 50 hours of work over the year. He did not make any foreign visits.

"I do outside work that is related and unrelated to my work as an MP and which broadens my understanding of the world around us," Mr Dunne said.

"I'm perfectly confident that I can do that and serve my constituents as a hard-working MP."

Frontbench MPs were expected to carry out ministerial work alongside their constituency duties, he added.

Mr Dunne also said he was proud to carry out voluntary roles, including as Commissioner on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Telford MP Lucy Allan (Conservative) and North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrats) declared no outside earnings or foreign trips.

Ms Morgan said: "Being an MP is a privilege and, for me, involves working full time to represent my constituents.

"My only focus is on representing North Shropshire and doing everything possible to improve the lives of the people who live here.

All MPs were contacted for comment.

Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]