UK lawmaker defends lucrative 2nd job as Johnson feels heat
ABC News
A British lawmaker is defending his 400,000-pound ($540,000) a year second job, as calls grow for a crackdown on politicians earning outside income
LONDON -- A British lawmaker defended his 400,000-pound ($540,000) a year second job on Wednesday, as calls grew for a crackdown on politicians earning outside income.
And amid a swirl of allegations about lobbying and cronyism by members of the governing Conservative Party, Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted: “The U.K. is not remotely a corrupt country.”
Conservative legislator Geoffrey Cox, a former U.K. attorney general, said his work as a lawyer did not take him away from representing constituents in the southwest England district he represents in Parliament.
Cox has been under fire for earning several times his 82,000-pound ($110,000) politician’s salary doing legal work, including advising the government of the British Virgin Islands in a corruption inquiry. He was allowed to vote by proxy in Parliament while he was in the Caribbean country, a British overseas territory.
