Torridge and West Devon CLP press release

We learnt this week our MP Sir Geoffrey Cox has earned a staggering amount of money in his “second job”, more accurately his main occupation. So far in 2021 Sir Geoffrey has earned £930,588 on top of his publicly funded salary of £81,000 a year. It has been calculated that since 2010 he’s earned more than £6m.  This is in stark contrast to the electorate he represents: his Constituency, Torridge and West Devon contains some of the most deprived areas in the country.

Sir Geoffrey was dismissed as Attorney General in February 2020. Since then, he has made one personal appearance in a Parliamentary debate. Whilst most people up and down the country faced travel restrictions due to the Covid pandemic, Sir Geoffrey was providing lucrative legal services to the government of the British Virgin Island, a tax haven which is being investigated by our own government on several counts of corruption. It’s come to light that he’s allegedly been using his Commons office to participate in the BVI virtual hearings, and the Labour Party has referred him to the Standards Commissioner Kathryn Stone.  It must be wrong that a sitting MP is representing a client who is the subject of British government legal proceedings.

Siobhan Strode, Torridge and West Devon Parliamentary Candidate in 2019 says “none of this comes as a surprise to me, Sir Geoffrey has been missing in action for 18 months”.

It’s come to light that Sir Geoffrey claims expenses for renting a London property, but he also owns and lets out a flat in London on which he claimed mortgage interest.  Apart from sheer avarice, this perfectly illustrates the gulf between the ‘haves’ and those without a home at all.

Ms Strode says “We need an MP who takes the issues of local people seriously; someone who understands how difficult the last 20 months have been for small businesses and families. Not someone who votes to take £20 a week off hard working people while simultaneously earning £900 an hour. Despite being MP for one of the UK’s poorest constituencies, hit hardest by Covid and the housing crisis, Sir Geoffrey does not care one iota. He is – quite literally – laughing all the way to the bank while lining his pockets with taxpayers’ money. Torridge and West Devon deserves better”.

Are the constituents of Torridge and West Devon truly being represented by an MP who has their best interests at heart? Members of the Torridge and West Devon Labour party thinks not, and it’s about time the constituents of Torridge and West Devon were put first and listened to by their sitting MP, that’s what we’re all paying him for and what we expect.

Jake Mclean

Torridge and West Devon Labour Party Chair