Labour’s Burgon to bring debate to Parliament to ban lucrative side gigs for MPs

Labour MP Richard Burgon has secured a debate in Parliament which will consider banning second jobs for all MPs.

Whilst some MPs insist their roles in healthcare and law should be continued alongside MP responsibilities, this loophole has enabled other greedy MPs to turn to lucrative side gigs which bring their priorities into question.

For instance, Burgon cites Farage pocketing more than £1m since being elected in “outside work” despite MPs being afforded a pretty high salary from the public purse placing them firmly in the top 1% of earners. Other reports have said that figure is actually £2m.

He says:

Being an MP is a full-time job. No MP should be out chasing lucrative second jobs.

Given Farage has also received £5m from a crypto billionaire with little transparency over what service that paid for, this debate comes at a time where MPs have been seen to abuse their position of power and influence to inflate their earnings.

BREAKING: I've secured a parliamentary debate next week on banning all MPs' second jobs.

Farage has pocketed over £1 MILLION from outside "work" since the General Election

Being an MP is a full-time job. No MP should be out chasing lucrative second jobs.

Let's end this racket! pic.twitter.com/Ikh9DCJY9I

— Richard Burgon MP (@RichardBurgon) June 24, 2026

MPs must answer to the public, not their back pockets

People have been calling for a ban on MPs having second jobs for years, and Farage is a perfect example of why.

Being an MP is meant to be a full-time job, yet since being elected in Clacton, he’s only turned up for less than a third of parliamentary votes. Voting isn’t some optional extra – it’s literally one of the main reasons MPs are there.

The people of Clacton elected him to show up and represent them. Instead, he’s missed the majority of votes while spending his time on a long list of other gigs. If you’re only doing a third of the job, don’t be surprised when people question your commitment to it.

Then there’s the money.

Farage has taken huge sums from a crypto billionaire, then pushed the Bank of England to keep its distance from the crypto market – a position that just happened to suit his donor’s interests.

It’s hard to think of a better example of why politicians should answer to voters, not wealthy backers. After all, the people who elect MPs should be their priority, not the billionaires helping fund their lifestyle.

Create the ‘disease’ then sell the cure

It isn’t just Farage trying to cash in. Back in 2019, we wrote about how Miriam Cates and her husband created an app that charges pretty substantial fees to food banks across the UK.

That’s bad enough on its own, but it looks even worse when you remember that the Conservatives’ policy decisions led to a huge rise in poverty and an explosion in the number of food banks needed to support people.

The optics are pretty awful: help create the conditions that drive demand for food banks, then make money from the services those food banks rely on. Create the problem, profit from the solution.

Maybe it isn’t insider trading in the legal sense, but it follows the same logic: see where your policies are taking society, position yourself to benefit, and then collect the rewards while everyone else deals with the fallout.

And it’s not just this one case. Too often, an entire ecosystem springs up around poverty and social crisis, with plenty of people finding ways to get paid while those most in need are left struggling.

Corbyn tried to push for this in 2019 under Labour

Back in 2019, and likely part of why he posed such a threat to the corrupt establishment in the UK, Corbyn pushed to ban second jobs and bring more transparency to lobbying and political donations. In turn, this would restrict the influence of the super-rich actively evading tax and not contributing to the UK from being able to influence domestic politics in their favour.

After all, the far-right are more than happy to say immigrants who don’t contribute enough shouldn’t be welcome – why should the super-rich be any different?

We wrote at the time of the proposals:

On the proposals, Labour’s shadow cabinet minister Jon Trickett argued:

“Under the Tories politics and government is in serious danger of becoming a playground for the rich and powerful, with decisions often made behind closed doors in the interests of a small few, at the expense of the many. This is very worrying for our democracy.”

Trickett continued:

We’re seeing that play out right now. When the big players in media, politics and business are so closely knit together – financially, professionally and socially – they control what conversation the country can, and cannot, have. They set the parameters of debate. Currently, this system doing a great disservice to the British public by not honestly presenting the choice they have at the upcoming election.

Given Farage and right-wing politicians more generally are hard at work to whip up hate and division amongst the public, in turn destabilising the UK, it is crucial now more than ever to make sure the public are aware whose interests they are working in.

Labour: one of the last remaining socialists

Burgon is one of the last remaining socialist MPs in the Labour Party, and he has refused to be quiet – which has been one of the last redeeming factors for the party itself. However, he has often been ignored by the ruling clique surrounding Starmer and the Labour-right.

Nevertheless, this vote comes at a time when the interests of the socialist left and of Labour as a whole likely correlate, meaning this discussion could actually lead somewhere.

After all, Farage and Reform are a threat to democracy and to the success of both establishment parties.

Let’s see if MPs choose to prioritise their survival due to the rising threat of Reform taking their seats and take action which can stop such a profit-hungry, cash-for-hire ‘politician’ like Farage.

Featured image via the Canary