Ex-Tory minister rakes in £1,000 an hour advising a financial institution on local weather points

On Jan 11, 2024

A former Tory Cabinet minister and ex-COP26 President has bagged himself a £1,000-an-hour job advising a Swedish financial institution on local weather points.

Alok Sharma, who continues to be a sitting Conservative MP, is receiving £50,000 each three months for 48 hours work at Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken. The former Business Secretary, who declared the earnings within the members’ register of pursuits, mentioned described his function for the financial institution as an “adviser on geopolitical and economic trends, green finance, carbon transition and strategic issues”. The profitable gig began in September and is ongoing.

The MP for Reading West additionally raked in additional than £95,000 throughout 4 talking engagements between May and October final yr – together with one £12,000 digital talking panel. This is on high of his annual wage as an MP of round £90,000.

Sir Alok is a thorn in Rishi Sunak’s facet after he attacked the PM earlier this week over his plans to permit extra oil and fuel drilling within the North Sea. The ex-minister mentioned he will not vote for a “smoke and mirrors” invoice on the problem and accused the Government of “not being serious” about tackling the local weather disaster.

“We saw this last autumn with the chopping and changing of some policies, and actually not being serious about meeting our international commitments,” he mentioned. The UK signed as much as transitioning away from utilizing fossil fuels on the COP28 summit in December however this invoice is “the opposite of what we agreed internationally”, Sir Alok mentioned.

He has been accused of dropping hope within the Tory get together and “already looking to life” after being in public workplace. Questions have additionally been raised over whether or not it’s acceptable for the sitting Tory MP to be raking in a lot.

Anneliese Dodds, Chair of the Labour Party, mentioned: “For people facing sky high taxes or mortgage hikes thanks to the Conservatives’ economic chaos, seeing their MP earning this eye watering amount on the side will show how out of touch the Conservatives are. With a Labour government, the culture of Whitehall will be overhauled, and politics will serve the people it represents.”

Lib Dem Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain mentioned: “Alok Sharma probably knows what everyone else does, that the time is up on this Conservative government. Conservative MPs are already looking to life after the public boot them out of office.”