Angela Rayner spent years telling the country that MPs should be barred from holding second jobs, calling the practice “beyond shameful.” She said it as a sitting MP. She never stopped being one. And she cashed in anyway.
Ms Rayner resigned as a minister last year but kept her seat and her MP’s salary throughout. In that same period, while still drawing pay as an MP, she earned £182,376 from outside work: corporate speaking engagements and a book advance, on top of a £16,876 ministerial exit payment. Every figure is confirmed in the register of MPs’ financial interests.
Now the same MP who campaigned to stop her colleagues taking outside income has accepted a fresh £20,000 donation, this time from an oil-linked advisory firm, to help cover her staffing costs.
The pattern runs deeper than second jobs. Ms Rayner has spent her career attacking oil and gas companies, backing windfall taxes, and cheering on Ed Miliband’s net-zero drive. It has been reported, meanwhile, the donors spent March organising meetings in Venezuela between oil executives and hedge fund managers to discuss exploration opportunities. Of every MP in Parliament, Ms Rayner is the only one who took the firm’s money.
She also pocketed £10,000 for a speaking slot at an event organised by the donors, though this time she asked for the fee to go to charity.
Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said: “Ms Rayner can’t have it both ways.” Joanna Marchong of Onward accused her of building a career on demanding standards of others that she refuses to apply to herself.
A spokesman for Ms Rayner said all donations were declared “in line with the rules.”
