Top story: MPs seeking lucrative roles ‘should step down’
Hello, Warren Murray here to bring things into focus this Tuesday morning.
More than a quarter of Conservative MPs have second jobs with firms whose activities range from gambling to private healthcare, making about £5m in extra earnings in a year, Guardian analysis has found. The register of MPs’ interests shows it to be the case for more than 90 out of 360 Tories, compared with three from Labour. The row over sleaze, including “egregious lobbying” by the veteran backbencher Owen Paterson on behalf of companies that paid him over £100,000 a year, has focused attention on moonlighting by MPs. On Monday Steve Barclay, the Cabinet Office minister, rejected the idea of banning second jobs but said they must understand that “in performing their parliamentary duties they are expected to act in the public interest”.
The highest earner is Andrew Mitchell, the MP for Sutton Coldfield, who made £182,600 for 34.5 days’ work in a variety of financial advisory roles, with firms including Investec and EY. Geoffrey Cox, the former attorney general, is making £1.6m a year as a barrister, while Chris Grayling, the former transport secretary, is earning £100,000 a year from Hutchison Ports Europe, the register shows. On the Labour side, Rosena Allin-Khan earns extra income as a doctor, Margaret Hodge has a £20,000-a-year role at Royal Holloway University and Khalid Mahmood has a £25,000 advisory job at the Policy Exchange thinktank.
Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of trying to “take down” the standards watchdog for his personal interests as Downing Street made a new bid to stop the regulator investigating the controversy around the PM’s flat refurbishment. Labour’s Richard Burgon is tabling a private member’s bill that would ban all second jobs, with limited exceptions for professionals like nurses and doctors. “The job of being an MP is not only a great privilege, but it is also well paid, and it should be the full focus of anyone lucky enough to be elected as an MP. If people want to seek lucrative roles elsewhere, then no one is stopping them, but they should step down as MPs to do so.”
Rolls wins nuclear funds – Rolls-Royce will move ahead with a multibillion-pound plan to roll out a new breed of mini nuclear reactors known as SMRs after securing more than £450m from the government and investors. Ministers hope they will be quicker and cheaper to roll out, compared with large-scale reactors such as the Hinkley Point C project – initially expected to cost £18bn but now slated at £23bn. Rolls-Royce has promised to “harness decades of British engineering, design and manufacturing knowhow” to roll out the first of its mini reactors which are based on a similar technology to nuclear submarines. Each of the initial run of reactors is expected to have a generation capacity of 470MW, or enough to power the equivalent of 1.3m UK homes, and cost about £2bn on average.
Child dies after dog attack – A 10-year-old boy has died following reports of a dog attack near Caerphilly in south Wales. Gwent police said they were called to an address in Pentwyn, Penyrheol, at about 3.55pm on Monday and confirmed the child had died at the scene. The dog was destroyed by firearms officers and no other animals were involved in the attack, the force said. Officers urged anyone with information to call 101.
‘Hand gesture was everything’ – A 16-year-old girl was rescued in Kentucky after using a hand gesture described on the social media app TikTok to signal to motorists that she was in trouble. The signal – turning the palm outwards and closing the fingers around a tucked thumb – has been demonstrated by users on TikTok and by non-profit organisations as a way for a person being abused to tell someone they are in trouble without alerting the abuser.
“That hand gesture was everything,” said Gilbert Acciardo from the Laurel county sheriff’s office. “Had that not been been transmitted by the young lady, had there not been someone out there that knew how to interpret what she was doing, then who knows? We might not have had a good resolution on this.”
‘Other factors may play a role’ – White British people diagnosed with brain tumours are more likely to die within 12 months than patients from other ethnic groups, a study suggests. The research is being presented today at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) festival. While the results show a correlation between ethnicity and survival rates, the researcher, Hiba Wanis, of King’s College London, cautioned that “other factors may play a role such as a patient’s lifestyle and how early they received their diagnosis”.
Sensible bedtime good for heart – As far as a healthy heart is concerned, the ideal bedtime is between 10pm and 11pm, a study suggests. It found a lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease, compared with rates among people falling asleep earlier or later at night. The study cannot prove that early or late bedtimes contribute to cardiovascular disease – but Dr David Plans from the the University of Exeter, who co-authored the study, said important cues such as exposure to morning daylight upon waking up help reset the body’s internal clock each day. If the body clock is not reset properly over a long period of time, “that misalignment of behaviours and the circadian clock increases inflammation and can impair glucose regulation, both of which can increase risk of cardiovascular disease”.
Today in Focus podcast: Fully at sleaze with themselves
Following the resignation of the former Conservative minister Owen Paterson, MPs have been debating changes to their disciplinary procedures and the government has been forced to defend itself against a number of allegations of “sleaze”.
Tory sleaze and how to stop it
Lunchtime read: Now you know how tumble dryers are grown
When it was built in 1972, the Nakagin Capsule Tower was Tokyo’s only example of the metabolism architectural movement. The 140 self-contained prefabricated capsules were intended by its architect, Kisho Kurokawa, to serve as pieds-à-terre for professionals who wanted to avoid long weekday commutes back and forth to suburbia.
Each 10 square metre capsule had a unit bathroom, Sony Trinitron TV, reel-to-reel cassette/radio, rotary dial phone and a large circular window. Kurokawa, who died in 2007, had intended for them to be removed and replaced every 25 years. Almost half a century on, time has caught up with the structure, now shrouded in netting to keep dislodged rust and concrete from falling on to passersby. The few remaining residents are having to accept their homes and office spaces will soon disappear, amid reports the capsule tower could be demolished next spring.
Sport
Azeem Rafiq has settled his employment tribunal case with Yorkshire amid praise and an apology from Kamlesh Patel, the new chair of the club, for lifting the lid on the racism he encountered while a player at Headingley. The England rugby union head coach, Eddie Jones, has received criticism after claiming that Emma Raducanu has been burdened by “distractions” that have affected her form on the court. In an interview with the Guardian, the Olympic champion Nicola Adams has revealed she kept a hammer under her bed during her violent childhood, and opened up about the inequality and sexism she overcame in boxing.
Two of Britain’s leading sprinters, Adam Gemili and Daryll Neita, are locked in a standoff with UK Athletics after so far staying loyal to their American coach, Rana Reider, who is facing a SafeSport US investigation. Frank Lampard has held talks with Norwich City as the club’s search for a new manager goes on. The Welsh Rugby Union have handed a lifetime stadium ban to the supporter who ran on to the pitch during last Saturday’s defeat by South Africa. England have suffered their second major injury blow at the T20 World Cup after confirmation that Jason Roy has torn a calf muscle and will play no further part in the tournament. Mercedes believe they still have a chance of securing Lewis Hamilton’s eighth world championship and have vowed to keep fighting. And Dylan Alcott, who became the first man in any form of tennis to earn the calendar year golden slam earlier this year, has called time on his career and will retire after next year’s Australian Open.
Business
Asian shares have followed Wall Street higher in early trade. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.3% early in the day. The Nikkei and China’s CSI300 rose while Australian shares fell. The Hang Seng index opened up 0.65%. This morning the FTSE is showing lower ahead of the open, while the pound is worth $1.356 and €1.168 at time of writing.
The papers
The Guardian’s print splash today is “Johnson is leading the Tory party ‘through the sewers’, says Starmer”. The front page of the Express today is, on perennial past form, frankly astonishing and should tell Boris Johnson something: “Just say sorry for the mess, prime minister”. Much is rightly made of the PM skipping a sleaze debate in the Commons to make a hospital visit during which he didn’t wear a mask. The Mirror summarises: “No apology, no shame, no respect & no mask”.
“Anger as PM skips sleaze showdown” says the Times while the Metro says “I’m a prime minister, get me out of here!”. The i has “PM refuses to apologise for trying to tear up sleaze rules”. The Mail has a story about the sonorous Geoffrey Cox QC MP and tax havens.
Less of that sort of thing on the front of the Telegraph where the lead is “11,600 caught Covid in hospital and died”. The Financial Times has “Central bankers pose rates puzzle with divergent slants on inflation” – here’s a Guardian angle on those puzzlingly divergent slants. Of chief concern for the Sun is the latest Strictly goings-on.
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