Our poor deluded MPs

They say that death and taxes are the only certainties in life. But I would add a couple more things to that list. ‘French rioting’ is one. And ‘MPs getting caught trying to make cash on the side’.

This week a campaign group called Led by Donkeys released footage of a sting operation they have been running to try to trap MPs into agreeing to do consultancy work for a South Korean company. You may not be surprised to learn that the company does not actually exist. A number of MPs, however, clearly were.

After some initial flirting, Gavin Williamson did not fall for it, though we can see from the beginning of the interview the horrific sight of him trying to be charming. It is like watching the Demon Headmaster on a date. Others fell right into it, and it is quite instructive who did. They included Matt Hancock and Kwasi Kwarteng.

After some opening niceties Hancock can be seen on video portentously announcing that his daily rate is ‘Ten thousand sterling’ – a fee I suspect he has yet to earn outside of the jungle. Kwarteng, meanwhile, announced that he wouldn’t do anything for less than ten thousand dollars a month. Asked whether he means pounds or dollars, he says: ‘Well pounds, sterling.’ When the ‘interviewer’ says they were looking at a fee of £8,000 to £12,000 a day, Kwarteng magnanimously meets them on this. ‘We’re not a million miles off,’ he says. Kwarteng’s time at the Treasury makes ever more sense as the months go on.

But I don’t wish to be mean to either man. The problem is a perennial one. On the one hand being an MP is a part-time job – as evidenced by the fact that MPs can also become cabinet ministers.