Politicians conflict of interest

Politicians are elected by the public and they are expected to serve the interests of those who voted for them. But there is a lot of evidence that many MPs have conflicts of interest that may affect the beliefs they have and the decisions they make. While this benefits them personally, it negatively impacts the rest of us.

Politicians benefitting from the decisions they make

Many politicians are extremely wealthy. They're not going to pass laws, or make "tough decisions" that will make them or their rich friends poorer. Conversely, many of their decisions directly benefit them.

For example, in 2016, Rishi Sunak voted to cut capital gains tax. In 2023, he saves £300,000 from the same policy he voted for.

Jeremy Hunt has also benefitted from a £100,000 tax break due to a policy change while he was in government. He bulk bought 6 properties which exempted him from buy-to-let stamp duty.

In 2023, there were rumours that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak being in favour of abolishing Inheritance Tax, where the wealthiest 1% will get half of all the benefit. It is a coincidence he's a millionaire and his father-in-law is a billionaire?

Personal Relationships

Many high-profile politicians are part of an elite network with a revolving door, where people move from elite education into privileged positions in not only politics but big business and the media. It is not unexpected that personal relationships could affect how those with political power make decisions. In the following examples those involved have denied a conflict of interest.

Former Health Secretary Victoria Atkins' husband is a senior figure in the sugar industry.
Infosys, a multi-billion technology company has close links to former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. His father-in-law is the owner and Sunak's wife is a significant shareholder. Infosys received almost 50% increase in public sector invoices in 2023, a record for the company.
Infosys may also have benefitted from their close links with oil and gas companies. The company has close financial ties with Shell. Rishi Sunak in August 2023, opened hundreds of new licenses for fossil fuel extraction in the North Sea, boosting share prices of the fossil fuel giants. Shortly before these licenses were approved, Infosys also signed a $1.5 billion deal with BP, who also benefitted from Sunak's license approvals.
Former Education Secretary Gillian Keegan's Government department handed £1 million to a company with links to her husband.
Former Environment Secretary Steve Barclay's wife is an executive of a water company accused of illegally dumping raw sewage into rivers.

Shares and investments

In 2021, The Mirror found that while Health Secretary in 2021, Sajid Javid held £45,000 worth of shares in a technology company that worked in private healthcare.
Former chief Secretary to the Treasury Chris Philp has a substantial stake in the property finance group PLUTO and is director of an investment company.
Ex-environment secretary Theresa Villiers has held £70,000 shares in Shell since 2018, but failed to declare it until she was no longer in the post, which she claims was an error.
David Duguid, while Conservative MP, was critical of windfall tax of oil firms. His wife owns £50,000 of shares in BP.
Former MP Adam Afriye was given an award from the UK Vaping and Industry Association, a lobby group. His family also have shares in a vape firm, which he failed to declare.

Shares are largely secretive, we do not know what is invested as investments can be hidden. Also MPs only need to declare investments over £70,000. Some secretive investments of 41 MPs uncovered by the Guardian include: £220,000 in banking, £130,000 in energy companies, and £125,000 in housing developers.

Properties

A significant investment of many politicians is owning multiple properties.

A quarter of Scottish MPs are landlords, as are one fifth of MSPs
As of April 2024, over 100 MPs earned over £10,000 per year as landlords
As of July 2024, 44 Labour MPs are landlords.

Second jobs

MPs with second jobs make on average £233 per hour doing second jobs. Some earn as much as £1 million per year on top of their MP salary. BBC compiled a list of jobs as of second jobs as of November 2021.

There are two main issues with this.

Being an MP is supposed to be a full time job

MPs get paid almost £90,000 per year. They should not need outside interests. It is neither fair on the taxpayer that they are seeking outside work to serve their own interests, nor is it fair on their constituents whose MPs are neglecting local issues.

Nadine Dorries, had not spoken in Parliament since June 2022, 18 months before resigning. However during that time she still took her full MP salary without doing any work in Parliament or maintaining her constituency office.

Matt Hancock went on I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here in 2022 in an attempt to rehabilitate his tarnished image following being sacked as Health Secretary in disgrace, his mishandling of the COVID pandemic and evidence of potential corruption. He was paid £300,000 for his appearance, but still collected his MP salary despite being in a jungle for a month and not working as an MP.

Who do they work for?

If those in charge of making laws in this country have such close ties to big business and are being paid by them, whose interests are these politicians serving?

Companies paying for influence and access to networks. Here are a couple of examples which question where lawmakers’ priorities lie.

Chris Grayling gets paid £100k a year to work 7 hours a week for Felixstowe docks. While making this money, he was criticising employees striking for better pay, despite the company making millions in profits.
Nadhim Zahawi banked £1.3million from oil company, Gulf Keystone which included a final £285,000 “settlement payment” after he first became a Government minister in 2018
Former Treasury minister Richard Fuller earns £80k a year from 2nd jobs with finance firms based in the Cayman Islands.
While a Tory MP John Hayes has a £50,000 a year 2nd job as an adviser with oil trading firm BB Energy.
Amber Rudd is a non executive director of Centrica, who owns British Gas. She earns 90k over a year for this.