Wes Streeting is accused of ‘staggering hypocrisy’ for saying MPs should be banned from second jobs despite spending almost two months on outside work
- He received £27,345 additional pay for 277 hours of work over the past two years
Wes Streeting has been accused of ‘staggering hypocrisy’ for spending almost two months on outside work after saying MPs should be banned from doing second jobs.
Labour’s shadow health secretary received £27,345 in additional pay for 277 hours of work over the past two years, official documents reveal.
His lucrative side hustles include authoring a new book and working as a radio presenter and audio narrator.
Based on a typical working week of 37.5 hours, it means he has spent almost two months on these activities over this period.
Meanwhile, he was serving as an MP for Ilford North and sitting on Labour’s front bench.
Wes Streeting (pictured at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool on Sunday) has been accused of ‘staggering hypocrisy’ for spending almost two months on outside work after saying MPs should be banned from doing second jobs
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting arrive at Westminster Abbey for a service celebrating the 75th anniversary of the NHS in July this year
A protester chants in support of fair pay during the Conservative Party Conference last week
Mr Streeting, who will deliver his keynote speech to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Wednesday, also undertook an extensive publicity blitz around the launch of his memoir, ‘One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry Up’.
This may benefit him by increasing sales but would not have been recorded in the official figures, published in the MP’s register of interests.
It comes despite Mr Streeting previously saying he thought ‘being an MP is more than a full-time job’ and that he believed it disrespectful to voters to take on extra work.
Speaking on Times Radio in November 2021, Mr Streeting said: ‘I think it is time to just ban MPs from having second jobs. I don’t know where people find the time, to be honest.
‘I find being an MP is more than a full-time job, it is also an enormous privilege, and we ought to treat the voters with respect by focusing on that job.’
Since saying this, he has registered 277 hours of paid work from second jobs, including 15 hours of radio presenting, 250 hours of writing and 12 hours of narration.
This work generated total payments of £27,345 or an average of £99 an hour.
Mr Streeting, who will deliver his keynote speech to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Wednesday, also undertook an extensive publicity blitz around the launch of his memoir, ‘One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry Up’
Doctors and medical staff from the British Medical Association (BMA) stage a protest outside the Mancheser Library during the Conservative Party annual conference last week
A Conservative source said: ‘This is staggering hypocrisy from Wes Streeting,
‘It is this kind of short-term decision making than dominates the Labour Party and shows that Streeting is just the same old Labour.
‘If he wasn’t so busy on his side hustles or self-publicity, he might have found time to come up with more credible ideas on health.’
It came as Mr Streeting yesterday said Labour needs to be shaken out its ‘rose-tinted dewy-eyed nostalgia’ for the NHS so its failings can be addressed.
Speaking at a fringe event at the conference yesterday[TUE], he described the service as ‘awful in many cases’ and warned historic sentiment risks getting in the way of necessary reforms.
Mr Streeting also said that too often the NHS treated those who were prepared to be ‘pushy’ and ‘sharp-elbowed’ better than those who simply waited their turn – saying he himself had hurried doctors when he was being treated for cancer.
And he hinted to delegates on Monday that Labour will cave in to junior doctors’ huge pay demands in a bid to end strikes that are crippling the NHS.
At the Labour conference on Tuesday, Professor Philip Banfield, (pictured in January) chair of the British Medical Association, failed to rule out further doctors strikes over winter, when the NHS is under most pressure
Mr Streeting said he has ‘much more sympathy’ for junior medics who are demanding rises of 35 per cent than for better paid consultants and would offer them the ‘pay they deserve’.
At the Labour conference on Tuesday, Professor Philip Banfield, chair of the British Medical Association, failed to rule out further doctors strikes over winter, when the NHS is under most pressure.
Meanwhile Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of the NHS, called for ‘serious discussions’ between the BMA and Government to prevent further disruption.
She revealed doctors have now been out on strike for 720 hours since March – the equivalent of a whole month. A Labour source said Mr Streeting wrote his book while on holiday.
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