Much of the country is outraged and even Downing Street is embarrassed. But for Conservatives in wealthy suburbia, the way MP Sir Geoffrey Cox is piling up his non-parliamentary earnings is nothing less than a badge of pride. Last month Tories in former foreign secretary Dominic Raab’s Esher and Walton constituency invited Cox to address an “autumn lunch” at Burhill Golf Club. A poster to advertise the event said Cox is a “most charismatic speaker full of gusto and drama” who, before being appointed attorney general and giving up his private practice, “had been the highest earning MP in the UK”.
The MP, barrister and former attorney general is in hot water after the Daily Mail revealed last week that he had earned hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal fees working in the Caribbean during the coronavirus pandemic. Cox, who has long been known to be one of parliament’s big earners, took advantage of the pandemic lockdown rules to cast votes in the Commons from 4,000 miles away while he was busy advising the prime minister of the Virgin Islands in a corruption case brought by the British Foreign Office. Amid the resulting furore over his actions, Cox quickly confirmed that he had, in fact, earned more than £1m this year from his legal work, a large slice of which was for the Caribbean assignment, on top of his £82,00 salary as an MP. Labour’s shadow justice secretary, David Lammy, said that it was astonishing that Tories could promote Cox in the poster for the Esher and Walton constituency event because of how much he earned rather than his public service.
While he had not broken any rules, the extent of these private earnings did not look good at a time when Boris Johnson is battling to hold back a tsunami of Tory sleaze allegations. “You don’t judge MPs by how much they earn but by what they do for their constituents and what they do in parliament,” Lammy said. The event in his constituency may explain why Raab, when asked if Cox’s earnings were appropriate, tried his best not to criticise his former cabinet colleague, saying it was up to constituents to judge for themselves. Analysis of the MPs’ register of interests by the Guardian showed that Cox has earned almost £6m from his work as a barrister outside parliament since he was elected as the Conservative MP for Torridge and West Devon in 2005. Esher and Walton Conservative party were approached for comment. • This article was amended on 14 November 2021 to include an image of part of the autumn lunch invitation.