Top Tory tells fake foreign firm he can bunk off MP job to make dosh worldwide

26 March 2023 , 21:00

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Sir Graham Brady has already got two jobs on top of his role as an MP

Top Tory Sir Graham Brady claimed party bosses would allow him time off from Westminster to gallivant around the globe making dosh.

As the shop steward for Conservative MPs, the chairman of the 1922 Committee played a key role in the removal of the last three PMs.

The Altrincham and Sale West MP was duped by campaign group Led By Donkeys into holding a video call about a job as a board member for a fake South Korean firm.

Footage shows him boasting about how it would be possible for him to slip away from the Commons for business meetings around the world.

Sir Graham said there might sometimes be “emergency occasions” if “something dramatic was happening in British politics”.

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Matt Hancock was also secretly filmed offering to work for £10,000 a day (Led by Donkeys)

“But in a normal course of events, yes, I would be able to plan those things and make sure that I could be free to attend,” he added.

“I have a, I suppose, a degree of seniority within my party, which means that I'm given a little bit of flexibility that perhaps not all of my colleagues would have. So, yes. So I don't think that would be a problem at all.”

Asked about a possible fee, he told a representative of the fake company he “was thinking something like £60,000 as an annual rate”.

If Sir Graham had taken on the role it would have been his fourth job. Alongside his role as an MP he is earning £48,000 a year as a marketing and communications adviser to two UK-based firms.

In a statement, Sir Graham said: “Having decided to leave the Commons at the next election, I have received a number of approaches regarding future opportunities.

“I did have an exploratory discussion with someone purporting to be recruiting an international advisory board for a South Korean investment house.

“I made it clear that any arrangement would have to be completely transparent and that whilst a Member of Parliament, I would only act within the terms of the Code of Conduct.

“I also made it clear that whilst I could be flexible in attending international meetings in person, this would be subject to some important votes and commitments at Westminster.”

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John Stevens