STEPHEN Flynn slated the “utterly perverse” secondary incomes of senior Tory MPs while Rishi Sunak tries to deny workers the right to strike for fair pay in the first PMQs of the new year.
Earlier this week a months-long investigation by Sky News and the Tortoise news website resulted in the launch of a database of political donations and MPs’ outside earnings.
The database, called Westminster Accounts, revealed millions of pounds of outside earnings have been made by a small group of largely Tory MPs since the end of 2019.
SNP Westminster leader Flynn raised the fact that in four months across four speeches former prime minister Boris Johnson raked in in excess of £1 million and asked if Rishi Sunak found the findings “utterly perverse” while he refused to negotiate with unions over a fair pay deal and had launched legislation which could punish workers for striking.
Sunak deflected the request with a jibe about Alex Salmond's Russia Today show, which was discontinued last year following the invasion of Ukraine.
Flynn said: “Let's reflect on numbers and in particular those numbers that were shone a light on by Sam Coates of Sky, in particular those in relation to the prime minister’s favourite potential successor [Boris Johnson], which showed over four months from four speeches he raked in in excess a million pounds.
“Does the Prime Minister not find it utterly perverse that senior members of the Tory party are feathering their nest in this way while at the same time seeking to deny working people the opportunity to strike for fair pay?”
Sunak replied: “I don’t think we need to talk about our predecessors. I think it was one of his predecessors that did indeed work for Russia Today if I’m not mistaken.”
Flynn also took aim at the Tories over the recession, Brexit and soaring inflation and asked if Scots can be blamed for looking at claims about the Union and concluding "they don't add up".
Elsewhere during PMQs, Sunak admitted he has used private healthcare just days after dodging a question on the issue.
It comes after Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon insisted she has never used independent healthcare.
Sunak said he was proud to come from an NHS family and is registered with an NHS GP but has turned to used private healthcare “in the past” as he responded to a question about people struggling to secure dentist appointments where he was asked how long he has had to wait for his own appointments.
It has previously been reported Sunak is registered with a private GP practice that charges £250 for a same-day, half-hour consultation.
Downing Street said the information was “not in the public interest” earlier this week but Sunak seemed to confess when pressed in the Commons on Wednesday.
Labour leader Keir Starmer focussed on the anti-strike legislation presented to the Commons on Tuesday claiming it would not work and Sunak had gone from "clapping the nurses to sacking the nurses".
The legislation will require certain sectors such as transport, health and border security to meet minimum safety requirements during strike action - something which several politicians and union leaders have pointed out already happens.
Sunak said that the International Labour Organisation supports minimum service levels but according to a blog from the Institute of Employment Rights, the organisation said they should only be implemented with the agreement of the union in question.
