Former cabinet ministers Matt Hancock and Kwasi Kwarteng told a fake overseas company looking for MP advisers that their daily rate for consultancy would be £10,000. In a sting operation set up by campaign group Led By Donkeys, Mr Hancock and Mr Kwarteng both set out six-figure sums for what they would expect to be paid to advise a non-existent firm in South Korea.
There is no accusation of wrongdoing, with MPs permitted to seek employment outside of Parliament. Mr Hancock, asked whether he had a daily rate during an online “interview”, said: “I do, yes. It is 10,000 sterling.”
The Conservative former health secretary, who was stripped of the party whip by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after he was announced as a contestant in last year’s series of ITV reality programme I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, later said he had an hourly rate of “around £1,500”.
